How your finger length can predict how badly you will get sick with Covid

LOOK at your hand – it may contain clues as to how likely you are to get seriously ill with Covid.

Scientists have found that finger length can determine Covid risk.

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It’s widely accepted that the length of your fingers is affected by exposure to testosterone in the womb.

And studies have also linked this ratio to a variety of other characteristics, from penis size to personality traits and food preferences.

Could it also be linked to the risk of Covid?

Since men have been shown to die more frequently from Covid than women during the pandemic, scientists wanted to investigate the connection.

Researchers led by Swansea University compared the fingers of 54 people who had been hospitalized with Covid to 100 healthy people who never had the defect.

The digit ratios were measured – that is the difference in length between the 2nd (index finger), 3rd (middle finger), 4th (ring finger) and 5th (little finger) digit.

Some key differences were discovered.

Patients with “feminized” short pinkies compared to their other fingers tend to experience severe Covid-19 symptoms.

Those with the greatest difference in length between their pinky and other fingers tended to be more ill with Covid.

The paper didn’t specify what constitutes a “short” fifth finger, since every hand size is different.

But an easy way to define a short pinky is one that doesn’t reach the top joint of your ring finger.

Prof. John Manning, the lead researcher, called: “‘Feminized’ differences in digit ratios in hospitalized patients support the view that individuals who have experienced low testosterone and/or high estrogen levels are susceptible to severe expression of Covid-19.

“This could explain why older men are the most vulnerable group.”

More importantly, patients with large differences between right and left hands in 2D:4D and 3D:5D ratios are at greatest risk of Covid hospitalization.

Prof Manning added: “Our results suggest that the severity of Covid-19 in both men and women is associated with low testosterone and possibly high estrogen levels.

“This is important because if it were possible to identify more precisely who is likely to be susceptible to severe Covid-19, it would help with targeted vaccination.”

The strongest factors associated with Covid severity are age, gender and underlying health conditions.

Prof. Manning has been studying ring finger length since the early days of the pandemic.

Previously, it was found that people with a long ring finger had higher testosterone levels prenatally than people with a long index finger.

Typically, men have longer ring fingers while women have longer index fingers, which is also a sign of higher estrogen exposure.

Prof. Manning theorized that Men who bucked this trend were more likely to get Covid because they had lower prenatal testosterone levels.

The hormone can produce more of a compound called ACE2, which helps the body fight the virus.

Prof Manning said in May 2020: “These concentrations are large enough to counteract the virus.

“Our findings could be that men with long ring fingers could have mild symptoms and return to work.”

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