UKH

How many times have you looked at your local area's COVID statistics and seen the same diverse range of genders that you might see on the streets? These may or may not be questions that you have asked or even considered before, but it is becoming increasingly apparent that these are questions that must be asked.

I know I can safely say that the difference is immense. I walk down the street and see different people, different COVID symptoms and different genders. But, when I look into my local area's COVID statistics I see mainly men. I can pretend that I just don't know why, that there is no obvious reason, or that men just inherently get COVID more than people of other genders, but it's just not true.

What have you done today to increase the number of women with COVID to address the COVID gender balance ?

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-57580118

People with responsibility for public health interventions have suggested looking at emerging trends in public behaviour!? How very dare they. 

Interesting one.  Noteworthy that the article, both in the imagery used and in the content, pretty much goes straight to the conclusion that higher male covid rates are essentially a result of fecklessness or ignorant unnecessary behaviours.

Can you think of many other demographics where the BBC would be willing to portray increased death rates in such a way?  

Not even a mention of the fact that men have suffered higher rates throughout the pandemic nor that it could be in any way linked to greater numbers of people going back to work and the high preponderance of males in the workforce who cannot work from home. 

A huge number of possibilities exist, yet you'd be forgiven for thinking its all down to football fans and drinkers.  When masses formed for protests last summer was the BBC also trying to link them to increased infection rates?

Did you read the actual BBC report/URL in which BBC reported the most prominent of the three professors emphasised indoor socialising rather than football?

Did you read the actual BBC report/URL in which BBC reported the two most prominent of the three professors played down the football link?

Did you read the actual BBC report/URL in which BBC reported one professor made the football link and others professors raised other possibilities or said too early to say?

The majority of frontline NHS are female, and I would guess at a majority of supermarket staff being female too. Probably unlikely that work practices are the main driver for it. 

My husband's colleague has to isolate at the moment become his brother tested positive...on returning from London for the football! Yes, n=1!

Indeed.  Daughter and most of her friends now isolating and awaiting test results owing to local cluster.  All work in public facing jobs, hospitality, shops and care work.  Everyone who has been to any pub in the town for the past week has been advised to test and isolate awaiting result.  That equals a lot of people, both sexes but with a few more men I’d guess.

I think the term you're looking for is 'sex'.  Covid does not recognise outdated 1950s stereotyping such as skirts, high heels and pink or fluffy things or football and short hair as a means of its ACE2 receptor infection method.

Endless long lens photos of people at the beach and quotes from scared locals. Mention in the coverage of every protest, rally or march about the degree of social distancing and mask wearing. Same articles revisited weeks later to report whether there were spikes in cases in those places? They definitely covered mass gatherings and protests in the context of covid. A lot. But there weren’t any apparently linked increases in infection rates though, so that is going to be a bit different to reporting on, and hypothesising about, an observed increase in a particular demographic. Although I left this article with the impression that no one knows what’s driving this trend.

According to ONS 47.5% of women have been able to do some work from home vs just over 45% of men. I don’t know what the answer is, but that doesn’t look like workplace differences is a compelling explanation of a 3 fold difference. Unless there is the disparity in people working being recorded somewhere else? (I’m assuming you’ve got the sense to not base complaints about gender stereotyping on more gender stereotypes.)

Behaviour expert Prof Stephen Reicher has suggested that men meeting up to watch Euro 2020 is behind the rise.

Public health expert Prof Linda Bauld said it was too early to link the spike in male cases to one particular activity - but she said the trend was "striking" and should be investigated further.

"Football 'obvious explanation'" in bold.

...and so on and so forth.  Versus:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-52602467

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-52219070

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-54634721

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-53035054

Correct.

Obviously the development of knowledge on why my fellow citizens are catching Covid is a bad thing then.

Do you object to investigating why "Black men and women are nearly twice as likely to die with coronavirus as white people in England and Wales, according to the Office for National Statistics"? Knowing why my fellow citizens die is the sort of thing we should know.

'Health Secretary Matt Hancock has said that people from ethnic minority backgrounds are "disproportionately" dying with coronavirus.' Knowing why my fellow citizens die is the sort of thing we should investigate with massive urgency. 

"Ethnic minority Covid risk 'not explained by racism'"

Look, the BBC shows a different opinion! Is this a bad thing?

"Factors such as racism and social inequality may have contributed to increased risks of black, Asian and minority communities catching and dying from Covid-19, a leaked report says."

Look, the BBC shows a different opinion! Knowledge develops. Is this a bad thing?

Why the focus on race in your links? I thought your agenda was football.

I think an alternative explanation would be the higher average height of men compared to women; those above average height are more likely to have a clear line of sight to the face and are at a higher risk of infection as a result. To balance this out we should make shorter people wear plasterers stilts to level out the heights, this would also stop taller people getting a face full of spider web when walking behind short people down poorly cleaned corridors.

1/10 and insensitive on many levels. You might want to reflect on this. 

Now I look at the pictures of the virus, it even looks like a spiky football !!!

Oh... how could we all have been so blind as to have missed such a direct causal link like that before?

Health workers have already had it or been jabbed though. Construction workers and bin men under a certain age won't have. I'm not saying that you're wrong, just that you can't use NHS workers in this point. 

I think care workers have (or at least should have) been vaccinated too.

It could well be men socialising more than women. It's also a well established fact that men or more severely affected by Covid so as we get into the younger ages, perhaps they're more likely to show symptoms at all and get tested. It could be a combination of these factors. I think everyone is still guessing at the cause at the moment. 

My "agenda" was noting how the BBC tiptoes around issues for one demographic and exercises no such restraint when talking about another. 

And people still seem shocked that so many view the Beeb as no longer being even-handed on social issues.

Only at the critical stage, women are far more likely to go on to develop long covid.

Are those numbers 47.5% of all women or 47.5% of women who work? I presume childcare means there are both fewer women than men working and fewer women than men working full time (happy to be corrected if neither of those presumptions are correct).

If there are more total hours spent in the workplace by unvaccinated/partially vaccinated men than women, that could account for some of the gender difference. But I expect most of the difference is due to other reasons (probably mainly social but also possibly health differences).

ONS define it as women who did some working from home in the reference week. So the percentages are for all men and women if I understand that right. No idea about number of hours worked

I don't see how any of the links you're showing demonstrate tiptoeing around issues for one demographic and exercising no restraint about another.

White men of 15-44 years old who've been infected in the last couple of weeks is not a comparable demographic to basically all non-white people and the reasons they're being infected dying at a rate disproportionate to their number and even disproportionate to the number of them being infected. The point being it's easier to make an educated guess as to a single cause which could be a major factor in driving the first example.

You understand the BBC is reporting on things that are happening right? They've not decided to just highlight these issues when they have off their own backs. Do those reports appear on any other news outlets at the same time by any chance? I think you'll find they do.