Naked Science Forum

Life Sciences => Physiology & Medicine => COVID-19 => Topic started by: Edwina Lee on 03/05/2020 03:49:47

Title: What accounts for the high degree of covid-19 gender bias?
Post by: Edwina Lee on 03/05/2020 03:49:47
Sex/Gender bias is an interesting factor to follow about covid-19 as this BBC article summarises the situation:-

https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20200409-why-covid-19-is-different-for-men-and-women
Title: Re: What accounts for the high degree of covid-19 gender bias?
Post by: Edwina Lee on 03/05/2020 06:22:17
https://www.sciencealert.com/geneticist-explains-why-more-men-are-dying-from-covid-19-than-women
Title: Re: What accounts for the high degree of covid-19 gender bias?
Post by: alancalverd on 03/05/2020 12:24:25
Sex bias might make some sense, and some mechanisms have been proposed, but it's difficult to imagine how virus replication or immune system response might depend on how you choose to dress and behave.

Though we did find an interesting phenomenon in the Chernobyl fallout: women were more radioactive than men, and the least improbable explanation seemed to revolve around time spent indoors (accumulating radon decay products).   
Title: Re: What accounts for the high degree of covid-19 gender bias?
Post by: Petrochemicals on 03/05/2020 13:22:45
Supporting the family most of their lives.

But have you seen the people who are non native british

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-52242856
Title: Re: What accounts for the high degree of covid-19 gender bias?
Post by: set fair on 06/05/2020 15:13:45
Supporting the family most of their lives.

But have you seen the people who are non native british

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-52242856


I point the finger at vitamin D deficiency. We often hear the line trotted out "If you eat a healthy varied diet, you don't need supplements. Well it's cobblers as far as vitamin D is concerned, few of us get enough in the winter and the darker your skin the less you can make from sunlight.

Here are the figures from a retrospective study of vitamin D levels of 780 corvid-19 patients in Indonesia


Vitamin ...............number................number
D Status.............of patients............who died

Normal.............,...388.........................16
Insufficient...........213........................187
Deficient..............179........................177

https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3585561

When will governments and the WHO wake up?
Title: Re: What accounts for the high degree of covid-19 gender bias?
Post by: alancalverd on 06/05/2020 17:25:12
Interesting statistics, and may well correlate with immigrant status. A quick look for "best sources of VitD in UK" lists sunlight, then oily fish, pork, beef, liver, milk and cheese highest up the ladder. We know that many Asians cannot digest dairy products, Hindus won't eat beef, Muslims won't eat pork, and lots of people (including, sadly, native Brits) shy away from liver, herring, mackerel, sprats, and the like in all their glorious forms.

Either the Scottish government has been a bit economical with the truth, or maybe a diet of herring and haggis really works. A bit of statistical finesse might be interesting: third-generation Brits with West Indian antecedents probably eat the traditional north European diet much of the time - worth a look! 
Title: Re: What accounts for the high degree of covid-19 gender bias?
Post by: set fair on 06/05/2020 23:10:59
Estrogens participate in the upregulation of ACE2, levels of estrogens decrease with age
https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fped.2020.00206/full
https://erj.ersjournals.com/content/55/4/2000749
may have something to with this
Title: Re: What accounts for the high degree of covid-19 gender bias?
Post by: Petrochemicals on 07/05/2020 21:05:49
Supporting the family most of their lives.

But have you seen the people who are non native british

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-52242856


I point the finger at vitamin D deficiency. We often hear the line trotted out "If you eat a healthy varied diet, you don't need supplements. Well it's cobblers as far as vitamin D is concerned, few of us get enough in the winter and the darker your skin the less you can make from sunlight.

Here are the figures from a retrospective study of vitamin D levels of 780 corvid-19 patients in Indonesia


Vitamin ...............number................number
D Status.............of patients............who died

Normal.............,...388.........................16
Insufficient...........213........................187
Deficient..............179........................177

https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3585561

When will governments and the WHO wake up?
But is that a cause or effect?

 I really believe vitamin d is a necessity for a healthy immune system. It is a known fact people of  native african descent in scotland have been known to develop scurvy.

But from a scientific point of view, have the victims used up their source of  Vitamin D fighting the virus. The saying  "It really takes it out of you" has a root.

Going by the nhs workers who have died, very roughly, 50 percent are non native British,  where as 20 percent of the population are(you will see the greek spanish and italian namez on the bbc link), so  8 times more likely to become victim. My suspicion is Darwin.

Edit.

4 times more likely.
Title: Re: What accounts for the high degree of covid-19 gender bias?
Post by: alancalverd on 07/05/2020 23:03:16
Going by the nhs workers who have died, very roughly, 50 percent are non native British,  where as 20 percent of the population are
No surprise in those figures as the fraction of non-native people who actually do anything useful in the NHS is about twice the national average.