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Article Title: Why Are Men More Likely to Die of Covid? It’s Complicated by the New York Times

This article delves into the gendered impact of the ongoing global covid-19 pandemic. Various experts mentioned in the article hold that social-economic factors between men and women play a huge role in influencing health disparities. The text opines that compared to their female counterparts, men are more likely to succumb to the illness. Initially, it was thought that reason was mainly biological and that sex-based treatments could reduce the likelihood of death. However, a new study revealed that death rates varied across states and over time suggesting that other factors including behavioral patterns, job types, and underlying health issues had a significant impact as well. I agree with the text that behavioral patterns coupled with other factors explain the health disparities of men and women. It is no surprise that states that have proximity to each other had varying death rates. This was the case for New York and Connecticut where despite the two states being close to each other demonstrated different results. Men recorded a higher death rate in New York while women had a higher death rate in Texas. This has a lot to do with the restriction measures each state took to curb the stress of the virus. I second the researchers that sex differences in hormones, genes, and immune responses cannot alone explain the high gendered mortality rates.

The text further explains that the occupation of men is likely to place them at more risk compared to women counterparts. The fact that men hold more jobs in transportation, construction, agriculture, factories, and meat packaging plants places them at greater risk of fatalities and exposure to covid-19. The text further explains that men are at greater risk of incarceration and homelessness placing them at more risk to the virus. Women on the hand are more cautious and are likely to adhere to safety practices of regular hand washing, wearing masks, and social distancing which places them at lower risk of contracting the virus. Additionally, women are more likely to be vaccinated than their male counterparts. In my opinion, this is not always the case because there is no concrete evidence to show that women are compliant with the restrictions and vaccine uptake than men. In my opinion, men also adhere to the safety health protocols but they are not likely to be as intentional as the women which places them at a higher risk of contracting the virus.

Article: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/19/health/covid-gender-deaths-men-women.html