Those men likely suffer from low T. One of the associated diseases that go along with Covid-19 deaths is diabetes - most men with diabetes have terrible Testosterone profiles. In addition those men, as we know from the stats are unhealthy as they come generally.
I'm not a doctor, but my understanding is that women have a different hormonal profile than men and thus having a lower absolute amount of testosterone is not necessarily a problem; the problem is when the balance is not right between testosterone, estrogen, and others.
Like anything with health, it is the system not the parts that matter.
> Q: What are the implications of women’s genetic superiority for the current coronavirus pandemic?
> A simplified way of thinking about that is this: A specific gene on the X chromosome, TLR-7, is often used to recognize single-stranded RNA viruses like the novel coronavirus. Having two versions gives them an advantage in recognizing the virus.
> Additionally, we think that COVID-19 uses its spike protein to enter cells in the body. They do that by unlocking the ACE2 protein on the surface of the cell. And, as it turns out, the ACE2 gene is on the X chromosome. Which means all of men’s cells are using that same [version of the] ACE2 gene. So if they unfortunately encounter a strain of COVID-19 that has a spike protein that can perfectly unlock their ACE2 and enter their cells, men are in big trouble quickly.
> On the other hand, in females’ cells, 50 percent are going to be using likely a slightly different version of the ACE2 than other cells. It’s much more difficult for a strain of corona to have a spike protein that could equally infect both populations of cells.
The article doesn't claim that testosterone is correlated with Covid19 in any way, it merely says that it might be, and solicits further research. So your question isn't a response to anything in the article.
The HN guidelines explicitly say to not accuse people of not reading the article, but it's hard to have any reasonable discussion if people don't.
The word "key" does not reveal if it's positive or negative, just that it's important. On the other hand - nor does the article. Variance could be explained not only by testosteronje levels, but also by behavior and environemnt. You know - men and women differ.
But that doesn't actually address the question. Why not women, who have less testosterone? Just because men have less than a generation ago, they still probably have more than women.
If you cut and paste the comment you are replying to into ddg/google you literally get hundreds of references. It’s a very well known phenomenon linked especially to increased obesity.
That article starts off with interesting science (T dropping 50% in a century, T possibly boosted for a generation by cigarettes, etc) and then takes a weird turn at Tyler Cowen and meanders into speculative woods.
Just thinking aloud here, but maybe not because testosterone is bad in this case, but because estrogen is protective. I've heard, but I don't have a source, that women fair better than men in many health aspects right up to menopause and then it reverses. If anyone knows of a citation for or against that I'd love a link.