DECRYPTION – In Italy and Spain, there are even twice as many dead men as women. How to explain this difference?
The latest data in France on the Covid-19 epidemic confirms observations in the rest of the world: men are much more seriously affected than women by the new coronavirus. The difference is very clear for the numbers of severe cases, with 73% of men on admissions to the intensive care unit. It is slightly lower for deaths, but still significant, with 57% of men. In Italy and Spain, the gap is even greater, with twice as many dead men as women. This excess mortality was almost the same during the SARS epidemic in 2002-2003, also caused by a coronavirus.
So why are men so much more vulnerable to the effects of coronavirus? No definitive explanation has yet emerged, but several factors are probably at play. This inequality was first observed in China in mid-February, with the same distribution as in Italy and Spain. The advanced explanation was smoking,
