Anyone who thought Covid-19 was mainly a problem for the elderly, statistics are showing otherwise. Men in middle age are dying at higher rates than women and death is impacting, also, on anyone over the age of 85, which is not that surprising given the body's gradual decline.
There are no firm answers as to why middle age men are dying from the disease at higher rates, though there are indications. One idea is that men generally aren't as careful about hand washing. (As a personal observation, I can state that perhaps 60% or more men don't bother to wash their hands in public restrooms, just based on what I see when traveling or when forced by circumstance to use a public restroom at a restaurant or public event. These observations have been in normal times, before the virus hit. Is it not "manly" to have clean hands? Or is it just a man's thing to not care?)
The Wall Street Journal has an article (11.2.20) on this subject highlighting how an otherwise healthy 49 year old man died from Covid-19 around the same time his elderly mother also died from the disease. Here's a clip from that WSJ article:
"...researchers also are homing in on potential biological factors, including women’s more able immune systems. And research has shown men are more prone to poor hand hygiene, lax mask-wearing habits and delaying medical care. Identifying the factors at play is important, health experts say, to help guide both effective prevention and treatment.
“This is more than a significant trend. This clearly is a reality that this disease is more aggressive in men than women,” said Lawrence Young, professor of molecular oncology at the University of Warwick, in England.
Covid-19 has hit women hard too. U.S. death-certificate data show women make up about 60% of all Covid-19 deaths among people at least 85 years old, the most affected age group. This is a stage in life when there are far fewer men still alive, since women live longer. There are also more women in nursing homes, which have been devastated by Covid-19 outbreaks.
Overall, however, men make up about 54% of U.S. deaths, and a significantly higher portion in middle age."
Also from the WSJ article:
In Europe, the European Center for Disease Prevention and Control says men represent 73% of deaths of those from 40 to 69 years old. Data there also show men are 62% of the hospitalized population aged 40 to 69, and nearly three-quarters of the sickest patients in that age bracket.
What these findings say to me is that men need to be more careful in trying to avoid any contact with the disease. Doug Terry, ESN News Channel
