Svante Päabo, our greatest Neander expert, has found with Hugo Zeberg that the Neanders did not suffer from CoVID-19. That's because modern populations with those genes contribute disproportionately to the 5% CFR.
Those Neander-legacy genes went Under Selection in Europe, in Borneo, and especially in northeast Asia. (I don't think we're told about America/Parias. Razib points out Africa is a different story.) Under Selection means, something killed off the breeders with the vulnerable genes and spared those with the resistant genes. These Neander genes didn't Undergo the Selection in India.
First, CoVID-2019AD is more like CoVID-19000BC.
Second, this bug hit populations which clustered together, for warmth (hunter-gatherers) and/or for security (Neolithic villagers). India was and is warm enough that people could live apart from each other, until the mass urbanisations of the Indian Middle Ages. India developed a whole purity / taboo society - evolving into caste - which assuredly protected the populace from diseases, longer. Some of these taboos might have developed in the south (AASI) first.
For those interested, the gene is rs10490770. Razib explains how to find it for yourself.
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