What’s Really Behind the Gender Gap in Covid-19 Deaths?

Citation:

Shattuck-Heidorn, Heather, Meredith W. Reiches, and Sarah S. Richardson. “What’s Really Behind the Gender Gap in Covid-19 Deaths?” The New York Times, 2020, June 24. Copy at https://tinyurl.com/ybay95dl

Abstract:

A few months into the first wave of the Covid-19 epidemic, men in aggregate appear to have higher fatality rates. But ascribing this outcome to biological sex-related variables, as some have rushed to do, is unlikely to lead to effective interventions. In past epidemics, what at first appeared to be a sex difference turned out to be largely a result of the difference in life experiences between women and men. Occupations, behaviors and pre-existing conditions mattered more than whether one was a woman or a man.

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