Commentary A group of genes passed down from human cousins who went extinct 50,000 years ago explains why inhabitants of certain regions of the world are far more susceptible to COVID-19 than people living elsewhere, according to new interdisciplinary research. Two distinct phenomena—the migration of homo sapiens from east Africa to the north and east between 70,000 and 100,000 years ago and the spread of the novel coronavirus in the opposite direction over the past year—are connected, concludes Duke University scholar Adrian Bejan in his paper, “Coronavirus Invasion and Neanderthal Retreat.” The Romanian-born professor of mechanical engineering correctly predicted as early as March that the pandemic would spread from east to west.  At a time when medical professionals feared that sub-Saharan Africa, with its poverty and underdeveloped healthcare systems, would be particularly vulnerable to COVID-19, Bejan pointed out that sub-Saharan Africans’ lack of Neanderthal DNA would leave them largely unscathed. …