
Ask HN: Covid virulence in Islamic states where women are veiled - jelliclesfarm
If masks are supposed to be retarding spread of covid, has anyone collected data on covid virulence wrt gender in countries where the genders are segregated and the women are veiled?
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op03
[https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2013/06/fa...](https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2013/06/face-
veils-and-the-saudi-arabian-plague/277112/)

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DoreenMichele
That's dated 2013 and is talking about Coronavirus.

Is that correct? Am I missing something?

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detaro
MERS also is a coronavirus, and before getting that label was also just called
a "novel coronavirus".

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Middle_East_respiratory_syndro...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Middle_East_respiratory_syndrome-
related_coronavirus)

> _Initially called 2012 novel coronavirus (2012-nCoV) or simply novel
> coronavirus (nCoV), it was first reported in 2012 after genome sequencing of
> a virus isolated from sputum samples from a person who fell ill in a 2012
> outbreak of a new flu._

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jelliclesfarm
Thanks. So cultural social distancing while not a way to combat virulence did
its job.

It makes me think of the indian caste system. The diet was also proscribed
according to caste. And this lead to more co mingling of members of the same
community genetically etc.

Disclosure: I am Indian and when I was a child, I was not allowed to touch
even members of my own family esp the women(grandmother, mom, aunts as they
were in charge of the kitchen) if I came home from outside. We were kids and
teens and we would enter through the rear veranda and shower before entering
the kitchen or mingle with the rest of the family.

It was the same with utensils and bed linens. We never shared any of this. We
had a separate set of utensils for guests and for the help. In the villages,
during illnesses, the house will be marked and sometimes even the entire
village will be quarantined with no one entering and exiting. This was
especially true for chicken pox and fevers and malaria...I suppose it was too
for small pox before it was eradicated.

When a house is marked a sick house, milk, vegetables and food will be
delivered by the vendors at door step and until the house is deemed healthy
again, no one will be in contact with them.

In a way, we are dealing with covid 19 the same way..but with technology. I
find myself meandering in my mind and wool gathering with this..might come
back with more thoughts.

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gshdg
And where women are already prohibited from leaving their homes unescorted?

