A new study has found that people with gum disease who contracted COVID-19 were at least three times more likely to have severe complications from the disease, including a higher risk of hospitalization and death. A team of international researchers published their peer-reviewed study in the Journal of Clinical Periodontology earlier this month. They evaluated 568 patients, of whom 45 percent had gum disease. The researchers concluded that “periodontitis was associated with higher risk of ICU admission, need for assisted ventilation and death of COVID‐19 patients, and with increased blood levels of biomarkers linked to worse disease outcomes.” The research team found that COVID-19 patients with gum disease were 3.54 times more likely to be admitted to the ICU, 4.57 times more likely to need a ventilator, and 8.81 times more likely to die from the virus, as compared to those who had contracted the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus but …