British scientists are investigating the possibility of being more vulnerable to mutation
Why are more women dying from Covid now than in the first wave of the pandemic? Experts are trying to solve the mystery by pointing out that it could be due to the fact that they are more vulnerable to the new and highly infectious coronavirus mutation found in the United Kingdom.
In addition, the number of white people dying from complications of Covid disease is also higher than before. For Professor David Strain, a lecturer at the University of Exeter, there are several hypothetical reasons for the shift.
One of them, he told The Sun, is a new variant of the virus: “If we imagine everyone has a certain threshold of viral tolerance. If the amount of virus they come into contact with is above that threshold the exposure turns into the disease. Now the virus is more virulent, you need much lower amount to cause the infection, therefore people who previously were unlikely to catch the disease before (young fit women) are suddenly vulnerable,” he adds.
He also warned of a change in behavior during the pandemic, saying: “Younger patients, particularly white females, have been lulled into a false sense of security…Hearing on a regular basis that you are low risk means you are more likely to take the risks.”
The figures from Britain’s National Health Service reflect the bleak reality with hospitals in Johnson County under heavy pressure to treat 32,070 patients with Covid-19.
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Today, the percentage of patients treated with coronavirus is 20% higher compared to last week and 81% higher than on Christmas day.
The analysis of Covid deaths in British hospitals was conducted by the Times of London revealing a slight change in mortality trends.
The newspaper described the “first pandemic wave” by taking into account civilian deaths between January and May 2020. It then examined patient deaths from December 2, 2020, to January 6, 2021, and included them in the “second wave” of the pandemic.
Although the analysis for the second wave covered only one month of deaths, statisticians believe that these trends are likely to remain the same in the coming months.
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Kevin McConway, professor of applied statistics at The Open University says that “Obviously that wave is still going on, indeed still getting worse, and there will indeed, sadly, be people who were in hospital on January 6 who will die in coming weeks.”
In the first wave of the pandemic, 61% of deaths came from the male section and 39% from the female. But now, 57% of deaths are men and 43% are women. It is clear that the gender gap in the mortality rate is closing.
Some experts claim that men’s blood facilitates the infection of cells with the coronavirus. Men have higher levels of the enzyme ACE2 – which the virus uses to enter cells and start reproducing.
For Professor Strain: “The more of this enzyme, the less virus you need to cause the disease.”
However, he stressed that the new strain may be easier to cause disease in those with lower ACE2 levels.
“The differences in deaths between men and women are still going in the same direction as they did in the first wave, when many more men were dying than women…,” explains Professor McConway.
“It’s still true that many more men are dying than women, and that’s been the case throughout the current wave (and indeed the whole autumn), but the difference in deaths between men and women is a bit smaller than it was in the first wave.”