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drpvn t1_iydqced wrote

> New data from the city health department points to disparities in race and gender

> Women were 1.4 times more likely to report symptoms than men

I don’t remember public health officials whining about “disparities in gender” when it came to deaths from Covid. Or life expectancy for that matter.

What this most likely means is that men are less likely to report symptoms, not that they’re less likely to have symptoms. That’s the disparity. Just like men are less likely to report symptoms of depression while women are vastly more likely to be prescribed SSRIs.

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Curiosities t1_iyerwaj wrote

There were definitely reports of disparities in gender from the early days of the pandemic and up through now. Several different concerns throughout.

But even in this article, they point out that women are more likely to have autoimmune diseases and be responsible for more household work, reducing available rest time. This isn't necessarily women just underreporting a few symptoms, because the rates of autoimmunity, for instance may be a little off but it's like 75% women / 25% men, give or take, generally speaking.

As a Latina with an autoimmune disease and who is on an immune suppressant, there are reasons why I'm still masking constantly in public and taking other precautions to avoid infection. I fear Long Covid making me more disabled.

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drpvn t1_iyesjyr wrote

There were reports noting the disparity but I recall no serious concern from medical officials about the causes of the disparity or how they needed to be reduced.

Women are more likely to do work in the home. Ok. Are men more likely to have jobs? (Yes.) And would that mean they have less rest time? (Also yes.)

It seems highly likely to me that men are just underreporting their “long Covid” symptoms.

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mrdnp123 t1_iye8ct8 wrote

The media love to misuse stats and data. They’re pros at it

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FleetwoodMacNCheese t1_iyenvqu wrote

yep, they are expert marketers.

you may have data that doesn't bode well for a bottom line but if you can tell a story with that data and frame it in a certain light then you can completely change perception of that very same data

whenever I look at a report/article with data, I generally like to jump into the data first to interpret before I read the narrative. my takeaways are sometimes drastically different. but pulling up alternative sources reporting on the same data is helpful to figure out what is what.

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