According to a new study done on gender disparity regarding Covid infection, it was found that Covid does not always hit men harder than women. It depends on a lot of other factors, and the outcomes vary depending on localities, economic background, and various other factors.
A New Study Shows Covid Does Not Always Hit Men Harder
The most common observation when it comes to the Covid mortality rate is that it affects men more than women. Most health experts attribute this to sex-related biological factors, and men are considered more prone to facing extreme outcomes due to Covid infection.
The research aims to bring forward social factors that are specific to gender and their impact on Covid mortality rate among men and women. Even though it was initially believed that men were more affected by Covid than women, the trend was not consistent over time.
Not only that, it varied a lot across different regions of the country. The researchers point out the example of Connecticut, where the mortality rate for women was more than men for more than 20 weeks. On the other hand, in Texas, men had a higher mortality rate than women throughout the pandemic.
The sex disparity with regards to mortality rate also varied over a period of time, and it was not the same throughout the pandemic. In New York, experts say that sex disparity in mortality can be attributed to the sex disparity in contracting the infection in the early part of the pandemic.
When the pandemic first hit the country, more men were infected than women, which can be attributed to increased social contacts and risky behavior. Due to this reason, the mortality rate among men was 70% more than women in New York in the early stage of the pandemic. However, the sex disparity regarding mortality rate has flattened in recent times in the city.
Several scientists believe that sex disparity in mortality rate is consistent and is attributed to biological factors. However, the new research has shown that such disparity is not consistent with time, and it also varies depending on other social factors.
When it comes to analyzing the severe outcomes of Covid 19, other factors like lockdown, mask mandates, occupational exposure, and co-morbid conditions have to be considered.
In this regard, it is generally assumed that men have more co-morbid conditions than women, and this makes them more prone to extreme outcomes during Covid infection. In the same manner, when it comes to occupational exposure, men are more likely to move out than women during a lockdown situation, making them more vulnerable than women for Covid infection.
Apart from that, men are more likely not to follow mask mandates than women in most cases. Risky behavior is always higher in men than women across all regions.
All these factors lead to a situation where more men are infected in the first place than women. When this happened in the initial stages of the pandemic, it led to higher mortality among men. It gave the impression that men are more affected by Covid infection than women.
However, this is not the entire truth, as the trend did not continue for the whole length of the pandemic. As vaccines became readily available, the disparity in extreme outcomes reduced a lot.
In general, it was also observed that people from the minority community were disproportionately affected due to the pandemic. This had to do with social factors, and it was largely consistent across the country. However, the results were not consistent across different regions when it came to gender disparity in extreme outcomes for Covid infection.
