Washington Post: Why the coronavirus is killing more men than women. “One possible culprit was male behavior. Perhaps men were more likely to be exposed to the virus due to social factors; a disproportionately male workforce, for instance, could place more men in contact with infected people. Or men’s lungs might be more vulnerable because they were more likely to smoke in the earliest countries to report the differences. What has become more evident, 10 months into this outbreak, is that men show comparatively weaker immune responses to coronavirus infections, which may account for those added deaths.”

USA Today: A new database tracks COVID-19’s effects on sex and gender. “Months into the COVID-19 pandemic, details about the virus’ sex and gender implications have begun to emerge: More men than women are dying from the coronavirus. But other details — such as why, or what social or biological mechanisms are involved, or what that means for treatment or public health — remain unknown. One problem, experts say, is an international blind spot to sex and gender. Global disease surveillance systems have done a poor job of monitoring how the virus affects people of different gender identities or sexes. A new database is trying to address that.”