Thread by @feminineupheave

The UK has reached a tragic milestone measured in #COVID19 deaths. We @GlobalHlth5050 track deaths & cases (& more) in the UK & 186 other countries around🌎

👇Thread on global importance of #sex-disaggregated data (spoiler alert: includes startling revelation from @PHE_uk )

In England (as in most countries) we have seen that there are differences between men & women along the clinical pathway, from testing to death.

Data from England
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Much of the higher death rate in men is in older age groups (and we know that ethnicity is a big driver too):

Death rates per 100,000 people in England, by age and sex
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The figs 👆show why disaggregated data are important. The big question is why we see difference, & how we can reduce health inequities.

Sex-disaggregated data with #gender analysis can point the way to more effective (and equitable) public health interventions. #gender101

However, recently we have noticed that for England, but not for Scotland or Wales or N.Ireland, the reporting of sex-disaggregated data is inconsistent. Sometimes @PHE_uk reports it, sometimes they don't.

So we decided to ask them why.

Here's the response we received:

Despite decades of evidence showing that #sex & #gender matter to all health outcomes, & 10 months of painstaking work to show how this matters in COVID, this was not sufficient to convince the sages of @PHE_uk who declared "sex does not appear to be an important risk factor".

We don't agree with @PHE_uk. And as we move into widespread vaccine programmes, evidence indicates that gender matters for vaccine scepticism/uptake too.

See here, for one example:
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From: t.ly/fMm6

A catalogue of irredeemable errors at the highest levels has led us to a situation of 100,000 #COVID19 deaths in the UK.

Absence of sex-disaggregated data is an error that is easily and quickly redeemable - & will help us move forward with better & more actionable evidence.

End of thread.