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I think it's protective when you have one copy of the gene, and detrimental when you have two copies. Unfortunately, malaria was a strong enough pressure that the sickle cell gene was selected for, up to a certain percentage of the gene pool.
I thought that there was supposedly something about the altered shape of the cells themselves that offered a degree of protection from malaria? IDK, I don't live in an area where malaria is endemic, so it's mostly not a concern, just something we covered in biology and genetics in high school.