Why does Coronavirus love Men?
Senior citizens of age 60+ are at-risk category, which explained the high percentage of deaths in Italy. Italy has the second-highest senior citizen population in the world after Japan, and it was the first in Europe. This did not explain the low incidence of COVID-19 deaths in Japan which had a high median living age. More than 75% of deaths in the UK were patients with prior symptoms like diabetes or other lung disorders, but India which is the diabetes capital of the world has higher recovery rates.
Kids with less immunity were surprisingly corona immune to some levels, but even among the boys were affected more than girls. 65% of patients are male in a sample size in India, even among seniors, males are at higher risk. There is more likelihood of men catching the virus, and more probability of them being wheeled in for a ventilator and more probability of them dying due to it. So what explains the love of the virus towards the men or rather the hate of this virus towards the masculine gender.
China which initially reported the stats said that both men and women were likely to contract the disease, but more men seem to be dying. Some social scientists, said that more men are dying because men are outside more than women, this might be true in developing nations, but not in developed countries like Italy, Spain, Germany. Since coronavirus attacks the lung, it was stated that since more % of men are smokers, it affects the already affected lungs. But in China, or Europe, men and women both smoke in the same numbers, and even there men were dying more than women. Both sexes are infected equally but the death rate was 2.8% in men versus 1.7% of women in China. So why?
The virus attaches itself to ACE2 protein inside the cells in the human body, and there is more of the protein in men than women. This protein is also more among diabetes and cardiovascular patients. Below is the graph of deaths in NY state, where male deaths outnumber females, cases, and hospitalization trends also point in same direction. As earlier pointed out, due to the protein presence, the prevalence of cardio and diabetes is also higher among men which further escalates into higher fatality rates. On simple terms, even among two diabetes patients, struck with the virus, the male had a higher fatality % than the female.
The answer might lie in the estrogen hormone of women. In general, women tend to have a better immune system towards viral diseases than men due to their hormone levels. Philosophically and logically nature endowed women with better disease-fighting capabilities as they were the only ones with reproductive ability. Also in some countries, men tend to smoke more, leading to lung issues already in the system and their immune systems weak. Add the virus which attacks the lungs, we have a killer combo in place. Men lead a less healthy lifestyle than women, possibly stress more, exercise less leading to double whammy for viruses.
Immune System of Women- It is more for beating foriegn bodies, hence they tend to beat more attacking viruses of their body. Previous outbreaks of SARS, also followed the same pattern.
Cultural habits are also important, women score more points in personal hygiene. The fact that in a country like India, men consume alcohol, and hence roam outside, and so are more likely to contract the virus explains only one fact. The contraction %, but not the higher fatality % in them. Social fads like women washing their hands more than men, cannot be scientifically based and accepted. XX chromosomal persons have a better immune system than XY chromosome persons, the reason being the X chromosome carrying most of the immunity cells. So biologically as well, women are more endowed than men.
The same was observed in labs among mice as well, male mice were dying at higher rates than females. Culture, smoking habits, alcohol factors cannot be attributed to these mice's deaths. Female mice had deaths when their ovaries were removed or when their estrogen hormone suppresses, thus cementing the reason. All across the world, ICU admission is high among males, and deaths are more among them, even though both seem to be catching the virus at similar rates.
Prevention is always better than cure-seems more so for men
