6 ms·
Seems like they factored in the obvious stuff, i.e. men having poorer health outcomes in general, so I wonder if this has something to do with reproduction? By
by Wohlf 6y ago
Seems like they factored in the obvious stuff, i.e. men having poorer health outcomes in general, so I wonder if this has something to do with reproduction? By that I mean women's immune systems reacting more strongly to protect a (possible) baby?
- dleslie 6y agoOr perhaps men produce more mucous in their respiratory system, in general?
- criddell 6y agoIs that why professional baseball players can't go more than 45 seconds without spitting?
- nitrogen 6y agoThat's probably tobacco, or at least was stereotyped as such historically.
- kube-system 6y agohttps://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/15735297/ https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/15735297/
- criddell 6y agoI think you're right. A bunch of ball parks are now tobacco free so it's no longer the case. It's funny - when you watch the little league world series, the kids spit too.
- bregma 6y agoNot to mention scratching their groins. Some kind of immune response is involved in that, I'm sure. No need for the free clinic to get it cured when you're paid as much as an MLB player.
- BurningFrog 6y agoOnly men get called "slimeballs"!
- est31 6y agoYeah there are sex differences in the immune system in general. For example, women get stronger immunity from vaccinations but also have more problems with autoimmune diseases. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00281-018-00728-x https://doi.org/10.1007/s00281-018-00728-x
- timr 6y agoYeah, I was most concerned about controlling for BMI, since ~all of the prior evidence for sex differences didn't/couldn't do it. They controlled for BMI in cohort A, and performed an adjusted analysis in cohort B, so I'm somewhat satisfied on that front.
- microcolonel 6y agoBMI isn't exactly comparable between the sexes, since males and females have different distributions of adipose and visceral fat, and the impacts of these are clearly different.
- timr 6y agoThose kinds of effects would presumably count as "gender-specific differences". Previous investigations never really took body mass into account at all, which was...bad.
- rsynnott 6y agoAnd that could maybe contribute to something. There were other studies, though, which didn't take BMI into account at all, even though high BMI is a known risk factor, and generally more men are obese than women.
- pkaye 6y agoI saw this study from southern California. They provide risk ratios for different factors. Seems just being male have a higher risk ratio than being overweight. https://www.acpjournals.org/doi/10.7326/M20-3742#f1-M203742 https://www.acpjournals.org/doi/10.7326/M20-3742#f1-M203742
- taeric 6y agoMy pet idea that I would be interested in ways to test ultimately links back to what shared restrooms for men look like. Since they have made such a big show of how much we can detect this in wastewater, I am curious if standing urinals and such contribute to higher spread. Would amusingly fit in with many of the "why aren't crowds getting this?" It is largely crowded places with large communal restrooms that have associated outbreaks.
- engineer_22 6y agoPardon me, but most men aren't splashing around in the urinals. If you're really curious what it looks like you could just go in one and have a look around... :)
- taeric 6y agoI'm not accusing us of literally stepping into the urinal. I thought the data was fairly clear that men are worse at washing their hands than women are. And it seems a safe claim that splash back from the urinal is not zero. That said, I'm calling this my pet idea, in large because I think it is a silly one. Do I think it is in the realm of plausible? I mean, yeah. But I don't think it has stepped into the realm of likely.
- foobarian 6y agoForget washing hands, the urinals are very close to each other and there are no barriers to exhaled air. Someone sneezes, it bounces off the wall to the adjacent users.
- rasengan 6y agoMen’s immune systems weaken with increased testosterone - speculation is that this allows them to have less immune response so they can keep hunting and fighting.
- kapilkaisare 6y agoHow does an immune response impact physical capability?
- ti00 6y agoA fever is the result of an immune response.
- throwaway43234 6y agoMost of "feeling sick" isn't the actual bacteria/virus causing problems, it's your immune system doing things like raising your internal temperature to fight off the virus or generating boatloads of phlegm to do whatever that does.
- jxramos 6y agoInteresting; when my wife and I both get sick we always note this recurring theme where I get this intense but brief bout of illness, and her's are more drawn out and prolonged but significantly less intense. Timewise we're talking about 1-3 day sickness for me and 1-2wk sickness on her end. That recurring observation has caused a bunch of speculation between us about evolutionary protections and stuff where perhaps the man being down has more immediate risks that can threaten the family in the protecting role or something like that. Not sure entirely but fun to imagine about.
- kube-system 6y agoI thought the issue was the other way around in this case -- people were having bad results from COVID due to too severe of an immune response.
- csboyer 6y agoAs far as I know, pregnancy suppresses the immune response in order to keep the body from attacking the baby itself. That’s why doctors recommend pregnant women not to eat under cooked eggs, sushi and other high risk food items. Flu shots are also heavily encouraged for the same reason - the flu is a lot tougher to beat.