Q: Are males more at risk from #COVIDー19 compared to females? Why?
A: Yes, Men are consistently over-represented among #COVID deaths. In hard hit #NewYorkCity for example, males make up 52% of confirmed cases, but 61% of #Covid_19 deaths.
More explanations in this thread
The most important reason why men are more likely to die from #COVID-related complications is likely sex-specific differences in #ImmuneSystem function, in which females typically have stronger immune responses at all ages.
For this #coronavirus and previous coronaviruses including SARS-CoV and MERS-CoV, males showed increased infection incidence and severity:
You can read more about this here: ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/14742282
here: frontiersin.org/articles/10.33…
and here: jimmunol.org/content/198/10…
Note this is not always good: a stronger immune response can be detrimental in women from damage due to inflammation, which has been seen for flu. Women also suffer more autoimmune diseases: over-reactions of the immune system.
In some countries, sex differences in health behaviors such as smoking may play a role—for example in China around 50% of men smoke compared to 3% of women.
Men also have higher rates of cardiovascular disease and hypertension, which may increase the risk of death from #COVID19
Different social and cultural contexts may also affect how often women or men might be exposed to the virus. In certain countries, men may be over-represented in occupations such as construction that are less compatible with #SocialDistancing and #WorkFromHome
Bottom line: While both males and females are at risk, pay some extra attention to protecting your older male loved ones!
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