NEW YORK - It's one of the most well-known takeaways of the pandemic: Men die of Covid-19 more often than women do.
"There is no single story to tell about sex disparities during this pandemic, even within the United States," said Dr Sarah Richardson, director of the GenderSci Lab at Harvard University, which studies how biological sex interacts with cultural influences in society. Nationally, they found no significant differences in case rates between men and women. But the death rates - the number of deaths among men or women divided by the state's total population of each sex - were often higher among men than women.
Sex differences in genes, hormones or immune responses are not likely to explain these differences, the researchers said. The researchers speculated that states with more public health restrictions might see reduced sex differences. In New York, which saw a significantly higher number of male deaths in the first six weeks of the pandemic, mortality rates evened out once restrictions were put in place. The observed differences in New York could also be partly explained by better data collection, as well as under-reporting of deaths in long-term care facilities, where the majority of residents are women.
Still, independent experts said the new findings should not lead researchers to entirely discount the role of biology. And in experiments looking at the effects of Covid-19 in hamsters by sex, which can be useful since they don't include the social factors present in humans, Dr Klein's group showed that males fared worse. Other studies have also shown that women produce a stronger immune response than men.
Singapore Latest News, Singapore Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.