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Hypertension more than doubles the risk of hospitalization related to omicron infection, even in people who are fully vaccinated and boosted, according to a by researchers at Cedars-Sinai in Los Angeles. 
 
“We were surprised to learn that many people who were hospitalized with COVID-19 had hypertension and no other risk factors,” said Susan Cheng, M.D., director of the Institute for Research on Healthy Aging at Smidt Heart Institute at Cedars-Sinai. “This is concerning when you consider that almost half of American adults have high blood pressure.”
 
Joseph Ebinger, M.D., lead author of the study, said, “The take-home message is that avoiding infection is extremely important — even when the circulating viral variant is presumed to cause mild disease in most people.”