Frontiers in Endocrinology, also found that African American study participants were disproportionately more likely to contract the virus than white participants.Stay informed with live updates on the current COVID-19 outbreak and visit our coronavirus hub for more advice on prevention and treatment.A critical area of COVID-19 research has focused on the risk factors that may make a person more likely to either get a SARS-CoV-2 infection or die from COVID-19 if they develop it.SARS-CoV-2 is a novel coronavirus, and while it bears some similarities to other coronaviruses, there is still much that researchers are yet to uncover about how and why it affects some people more than others and how to mitigate the risks.Studies have begun to emerge.