https://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/19/health/covid-gender-death…
**Why Are Men More Likely to Die of Covid? It’s Complicated.**
**Sex differences in Covid death rates vary widely from state to state, suggesting they are rooted in behavior as well as biology.**
**By Azeen Ghorayshi, The New York Times, Jan. 19, 2022**
**...**
**Men are more likely to have jobs in transportation, factories, meatpacking plants, agriculture and construction — occupations with higher rates of Covid-19 exposure and fatalities. Men are also more likely to be incarcerated and to experience homelessness, increasing their risk of virus exposure.**
**Women are more likely than men to report hand washing, mask wearing and complying with social distancing restrictions, all of which may lower their risk of contracting the virus. And women are more likely to be vaccinated....**
**Biostatistical modeling showed that this disparity could be substantially accounted for by greater inflammatory responses among men, suggesting a biological difference.... women produce a stronger immune response than men....** [end quote]
The inflammatory response in the lungs (called a “cytokine cascade”) is deadly.
The data used for the study was the states, collected from April 2020 through December 2021 by the GenderSci Lab at Harvard University, which studies how biological sex interacts with cultural influences in society.
It’s not surprising that both biological and social/ behavioral differences affect Covid deaths. This is true of many causes of mortality.
The positive takeaway from the data is that men were protected as much as women by vaccination, mask wearing and social distancing…if they complied.
Wendy
