The Joy of Sharing Science No.2, Everything you need to know about COVID-19 Biology Supplement

Joy of Sharing Science
access to enough food. Lacking access to consistent nutrition makes the black community
more prone to have diabetes, heart disease, and hypertension – which weaken lungs and
immune systems. As the researches have shown, people with pre-existing health
conditions are more likely to develop severe Covid-19 symptoms.
In addition to the health problems caused by racism, racial biases prevent safety measures.
Because black people are more likely to be seen as criminals or dangerous, rather than as
simply protecting their own health; black men in the US have reported being
uncomfortable wearing masks in public.
(Image taken from APM Research Lab, “COVID-19 Deaths Analyzed by Race and Ethnicity”)
Differences between Genders
Although the data for COVID-19 show equal numbers of cases between men and women so
far, there seem to be sex differences in mortality and vulnerability to the disease. Emerging
evidence suggests that more men than women are dying. In the US, for example, twice as
many men have died from the virus as women. Similarly, 69% of all coronavirus deaths across
Western Europe have been male. Similar patterns have been seen in China and other
countries.
Medical experts have long known men can be more susceptible to viruses than women. Philip
Goulder, professor of immunology at the University of Oxford explained the biological theory: “In
particular, the protein by which viruses such as coronavirus are sensed is encoded on the X
chromosome. As a result, this protein is expressed at twice the dose on many immune cells in
females compared to males, and the immune response to coronavirus is therefore amplified in
females.” This boost supports both the general reaction to infection (the innate response) and also to
the more specific response to microbes including antibody