Score

@Capn
Set in Andorra, written by an Andorran, about Andorra
Is this 'or' or 'and'? (I guess it's 'or' 😉)

Oh dear, it's "or". I will update, thank you for catching this! :)

One of Mark Kurlansky's books has a good bit about the Pyrenees which is very interesting. The Rh negative blood type originated there. I wish I could remember which book.

Salt: A World History, Cod or The Basque History of the World?? It must be the last one.

I had to NCBI that for confirmation. Here's the ref I found, if you are interested: PMC6244411

The public makes a big deal out of things like this (it's just ONE plasma protein of gazillions, and one of the few the public has to be concerned about re: pregnancies), because it seems big to them, out of context.

This sort of "fact" tends to get used for awful things like eugenics. I'm generally against this sort of identifying information that doesn't directly correspond to useful healthcare interventions. It's just one of billions of biomarkers, and we are all very different and unique, even if we share a particular blood-type (we all vary - you could sort people a million different ways). The take-home message SHOULD be: you are related to everyone by blood. But people want to feel "special", so, thanks to psychology....

I think sometimes people are so desperate to "belong" to a "group" that this sort of thing becomes popular among the public. But there's a dark side, and it really worries me (hence this rant). ;)

Also, there's this:
"The Rhesus factor is clinically the most important protein-based blood group system. With 49 antigens so far described, it is the largest of all 29 blood group systems." PMC2535884
(So there's diversity even within this one protein). ;)

Anyway, rant aside, thank you for that interesting factoid! :) And of course for the links!

(Politicians like Marine Le Pen, or heck, anyone, could use this sort of tribalism to persecute minorities. So I'm super touchy about it - it's happened too many times in history that ethnic groups have been targeted as scapegoats and ruthlessly persecuted. I start to get twitchy when I hear the general public talking about group-specific alleles)