When it come to survival men are the weaker sex. FACT

[Storm Clarence]

It’s still early, but in almost every country that we have numbers, more men than women are dying from the virus.  What is being overlooked in some of the explanations given is when it comes to coronavirus taking a disproportionate toll on men is that this is not an anomaly.  

“This innate biological advantage is apparent at every age and stage of human life: Baby girls are consistently more likely to make it to their first birthday; 80 percent of all centenarians today are women; an incredible 95 percent of those who reach the formidable age of 110 years old are women. While on average genetic males have more muscle mass and greater height, overall size, and physical strength, when it comes to surviving the physical hardships encountered from birth to late-in-life, genetic females almost always outlast genetic males.”

I am not a doctor or any other type of health care professional, I am just a man.  It seems like I can run but I cannot hide. 

[LittleMe Jewell]

I had read some stats recently - maybe Colorado specific - that showed a higher percentage of women tested positive, but men had a much higher percentage of the deaths and even just the more critical cases.

This article provides some of the possible reasons:

https://www.france24.com/en/20200331-coronavirus-why-do-more-men-die-of-covid-19-than-women

 

Edited April 3, 2020 by LittleMe Jewell

[Storm Clarence]

I have read many articles (including the NYTimes link I supplied in this OP) that offer some reasons.  Like I wrote, this virus is not an anomaly for men being the weaker sex when it comes to survival.

 

We have nowhere to hide.

[Janet Voxel]

Men also walk around with undiagnosed health conditions. That might have something to do with it. 
 

My aunt got remarried four years ago. New husband died after two years due to an embolism. She said, he “hadn’t been feeling well  for about a week” just never went to the doctor. She left one morning to go shopping, left and he was fine, just a little ookie. When she came back in the afternoon, he’d died in the bathroom. He was 49. Of course she blames herself for not making him go to the doctor.

Women tend to self care, take time off from work and visit the doctor more frequently than men. I’m certain it has to do with men’s tendency to avoid going to the doctor.

Edited April 3, 2020 by janetosilio
Get embolism and anyurism confused

[Ceka Cianci]

The percentage in the work force could have something to do with it also..

I don't know about anyone else, but I catch more illnesses from people at work than anywhere else..hehehehe

[Selene Gregoire]

2 minutes ago, Ceka Cianci said:

The percentage in the work force could have something to do with it also..

I don't know about anyone else, but I catch more illnesses from people at work than anywhere else..hehehehe

Yep. Or it gets brought home to me from his work. 

As long as I avoid working in places like call centers (especially the ones who insist employee share equipment) or where I have to come into close proximity of more than a handful of people, I rarely catch a cold or the flu. Being misanthropic isn't always about not liking humans. 

[FairreLilette]

I remember reading an article that said women outlive men because men tend to be more stressed and not do anything about it.  Stress is called the silent killer.  But, I also agree that women tend to see a doctor more than men and sometimes even see a doctor about stress.  

What is the actual percentage of men who've had the virus and the actual percentage of women who've had the virus?

When I heard more men were dying of COVID-19, I thought it was perhaps that men shake hands more....but then I heard it's because women are "cleaner" on average. 

Maybe shaking hands has seen it's day.  

[LittleMe Jewell]

And per the linked article:

Then there are the biological factors, with hormones, particularly estrogen, playing a role in increasing women’s antiviral response. Genetic structure is another important factor, with a significant number of genes that regulate the immune response encoded on the X chromosome, of which women have two while men only have one. 

"We know that women’s immune systems function differently to men’s – after all, women’s bodies are designed to host a foetus for nine months at a time without it being rejected as a foreign body," professor Hawkes said.

"Generally speaking, women mount greater immune responses to a variety of viruses as well as other infectious agents than do men," Dr Klein said.

[Marigold Devin]

2 hours ago, Storm Clarence said:

  It seems like I can run but I cannot hide. 

That, my dear Stormee, is part of the problem with men. They often have a defeatest attitude or in total denial.

Or they think they are invincible. Or they think rules of social distancing (or turning phones off in cinemas) - you know who you are - apply only to other people and not them. 

From being children, more boys than girls are dare devils, men are more reckless when it comes to driving, hence why insurance for women tends to be cheaper with a lot of companies.

My brother had a stroke aged 45 through undiagnosed high blood pressure and stress, and a refusal to go to the doctors for anything. S'no joke. 

 

Edited April 3, 2020 by Marigold Devin

[Amina Sopwith]

I believe that women tend to have a wider support network; men, in my experience, don't usually have as many confidants. In fact, for many men, their wife/partner is the only person to whom they really feel able to talk, whereas women are likely to have several people they can look to for emotional support.

It really is a man's world, despite what a lot of people say. You'd think that this would give men a survival advantage, but they die younger and take their own lives more often. Seems there's a lot of pressure there, hmm. I do believe that most modern feminists are aware of this and it's a key reason for the cause, as well as affording women better treatment. In a more egalitarian world, literally everyone benefits. 

This is, incidentally, yet another reason why I hate Gor and would like every one of John Nobhead's stools to be a pine cone. That brand of toxic masculinity kills men even as it dehumanises and subjugates women. 

[LittleMe Jewell]

1 minute ago, Amina Sopwith said:

I believe that women tend to have a wider support network; men, in my experience, don't usually have as many confidants. In fact, for many men, their wife/partner is the only person to whom they really feel able to talk, whereas women are likely to have several people they can look to for emotional support.

My husband gets the flu and pretty much anything else all the time, whereas I might get a head/chest cold once a year (allergies don't count).  I'm the one with asthma and copd, but he still gets the crud every year, usually a few times, while I maybe get a sniffle.

However, I don't have anyone that I can talk to, for emotional or any other support, nor do I have a support network of any kind - other than me sometimes ranting here in these forums and getting feedback on that.  I just figure that somehow I'm resilient to it all - at least much more than he is.

[Amina Sopwith]

8 minutes ago, LittleMe Jewell said:

However, I don't have anyone that I can talk to, for emotional or any other support, nor do I have a support network of any kind - other than me sometimes ranting here in these forums and getting feedback on that.  I just figure that somehow I'm resilient to it all - at least much more than he is.

I'm generalising. "Usually", "tend to", "likely" etc. Obviously it's never going to be the case that all men are X and all women are Y. Unless you're John Nobhead of course, but he's a gutless, worthless, snivelling green discharge of a man and I pray for pine cone poo. But in the case of you being more emotionally resilient...I think that's in support of my overall observation.
 

[Madelaine McMasters]

14 minutes ago, LittleMe Jewell said:

However, I don't have anyone that I can talk to, for emotional or any other support, nor do I have a support network of any kind

...sets you on fire.

[LittleMe Jewell]

16 minutes ago, Amina Sopwith said:

But in the case of you being more emotionally resilient..

Actually, on that part I meant that I assume I am just more resilient to all of the various viral crud he somehow gets.

[Talligurl]

Check out the list on this site of the top 25 deadliest jobs.

https://www.ajc.com/news/world/these-are-the-deadliest-jobs-america-study-says/pKusOItm8JG6m0P4SCrXuN/

Than ask yourself what percentage of these are held by women, this alone makes men more likely to die.

[Fritigern Gothly]

[Selene Gregoire]

58 minutes ago, LittleMe Jewell said:

However, I don't have anyone that I can talk to, for emotional or any other support, nor do I have a support network of any kind - other than me sometimes ranting here in these forums and getting feedback on that.

I'm in the same boat. 

You're never too old to need the comfort of a mother's arms in troubled times. Some of us are fortunate our mothers are still in our lives. The rest of us just keep going because that's all that can be done. We were promised a rose garden but there has to be a little rain along with the sunshine or the garden will die.

Eep. I'm rambling again. 

[Da5id Weatherwax]

The most survivable situation, throughout our species history, has been the genders working together, each leveraging the advantages brought by the other.

That's how we became the dominant species over an entire planet. By creating social frameworks that allowed this dynamic to operate. We're almost unique in that, and the other species that have approached this situation did it later than us when we were already spread all over the place and adapting to different environments - not just physically, which is slow, but socially which can take place over a single generation.

 

Which does, of course have the corollary that if we foul up our social organization then we are royally screwed.

[LittleMe Jewell]

6 minutes ago, Selene Gregoire said:

You're never too old to need the comfort of a mother's arms in troubled times. Some of us are fortunate our mothers are still in our lives.

My mother is still alive and we have patched up a lot from my childhood, but she is still not someone that I can talk FULL TRUTH to - most especially not if it touches on any of my depressive tendencies.

[Selene Gregoire]

2 minutes ago, Da5id Weatherwax said:

The most survivable situation, throughout our species history, has been the genders working together, each leveraging the advantages brought by the other.

That's how we became the dominant species over an entire planet. By creating social frameworks that allowed this dynamic to operate. We're almost unique in that, and the other species that have approached this situation did it later than us when we were already spread all over the place and adapting to different environments - not just physically, which is slow, but socially which can take place over a single generation.

 

Which does, of course have the corollary that if we foul up our social organization then we are royally screwed.

Except we are not adapting to our environment so much as we are adapting it to us (air conditioning, heating, etc) and making a mess of the planet in the process. 

I'm pretty sure the "preceding" social organization was fouled up long before the "current" reached American continental shores. If you get my drift. 

[Selene Gregoire]

1 minute ago, LittleMe Jewell said:

My mother is still alive and we have patched up a lot from my childhood, but she is still not someone that I can talk FULL TRUTH to - most especially not if it touches on any of my depressive tendencies.

There has never been a single person on this planet that I could ever talk to about anything and everything, much less fully and truthfully. Not even with my own mother. There are some things that just won't ever be talked about. Partly because I just didn't have the heart to break hers and partly because I lost her 15 years ago so there are some things I will never get to tell her. Sometimes you have to ask yourself whose guilt will be harder to live with, hers or yours.

[Da5id Weatherwax]

19 minutes ago, Selene Gregoire said:

Except we are not adapting to our environment so much as we are adapting it to us (air conditioning, heating, etc) and making a mess of the planet in the process. 

I'm pretty sure the "preceding" social organization was fouled up long before the "current" reached American continental shores. If you get my drift. 

You aint gonna hear me contradict you on that, Selene

 

As a species we are "adapted" to taking control of our environment as much as possible. So far, we've been fortunate enough that we haven't fouled that up to the point of an exctinction-level "oops"

You want to give odds on that state of affairs continuing? I sure don't.

And as for the "preceding" social organization, which one had you in mind? Misogynistic medieval or Matrilineal celtic? Victorian-European that combined elements of both? Or going further back the Roman system where the paterfamilias effectively owned everyone in their household? Or its descendant in the modern latin culture where even the man of the house lives in fear of "La Chancla"from mom?

 

ETA: In my list of examples I explicitly excluded examples from the Masai or from other African cultures where the feminine role is much more powerful than it may at first seem, because while these cultures were imported to America, which was the continent you cited, they were viciously suppressed there.The dominant culture in America has always been European - albeit modified by local adaptions -  and while it is slowly coming to terms with inputs from other continents it could not be considered "mature" in that respect. Not even with the penetrance of Asian culture in HI.

Edited April 3, 2020 by Da5id Weatherwax

[Madelaine McMasters]

17 minutes ago, Da5id Weatherwax said:

Or its descendant in the modern latin culture where even the man of the house lives in fear of "La Chancla"from mom?

 

[Madelaine McMasters]

35 minutes ago, Selene Gregoire said:

Except we are not adapting to our environment so much as we are maladapting it to us (air conditioning, heating, etc) and making a mess of the planet in the process. 

FIFY!

[Jackson Redstar]

stress greatly lowers the efficiency of the immune system. Most men have to endure years of yelling and bitching and pitching a fit by the wife. So wives are killing  their men... 😂