Is there a coronavirus risk gap between men and women?

Women seem to be less likely to die from coronavirus in comparison to men, and children seem to be less likely to die than other age groups, according to data published on coronavirus deaths and reports published on various news media.

Chinese Centres of Disease Control conducted a study and looked at 44,000 cases that showed 2.8 percent of infected men died, compared to 1.7 percent of women.

With so much new data being generated and reported every day it is becoming very challenging to remain updated on the new coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak.

And research suggests that past global epidemic outbreak responses consistently failed to meaningfully capture gender-relevant data.

A recent New York Times article too reiterated the fact that men may be more at risk than women: although men and women have been infected in roughly equal numbers, the death rate among men was higher.

But the cited data needs to be taken with a grain of salt as it is based on patient and medical records, and is unlikely to fully reflect the underlying gender imbalances of the outbreak. 

Donald G McNeil Jr, a science and health reporter specialising in plagues and pestilence, explained this to Forbes: "So far, the large numbers of deaths have been elderly Chinese men. That's because the virus has been in China. But there's also a phenomenon in China that something like 50 to 80% of all men smoke, and only 2 to 3% of all women smoke," McNeil was quoted as saying according to Forbes.

In other words, the male-female fatality rate differences are likely to be related to overall differences in people's pre-existing illnesses.