Does Covid-19 hit women and men differently? The U.S. isn’t keeping track.

Medical professionals outside Roseville Medical Group in Newark on Friday.Credit...Bryan Anselm for The New York Times

We know, based on data collected in China, Italy, South Korea, Spain and other countries, that men are more likely to die from the coronavirus than women. But the United States — which is collecting data on the ages of confirmed cases and of those who die — is not breaking down its data by sex.

These figures would be informative to vaccine production efforts, in large part because viruses affect women and men differently, health experts say. Men and women are also likely to have different reactions to vaccines and drugs.

Multiple viruses in the past — including for SARS, influenza, H.I.V. and Ebola — were found to have different effects on men and women.

A recent study from Huazhong University of Science and Technology in Wuhan, China, found that women infected with the coronavirus had a higher level of antibodies than men.

“That, in and of itself, should be evidence for why every country should be disaggregating their data,” said Sabra Klein, a scientist who studies sex difference in viral infections at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

Yet, the latest update on cases and deaths in the United States from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention contained no mention of male and female patients. When asked why, a spokesperson for the C.D.C. said the agency simply did “not have that information to share at this time” and that “additional investigation is needed.”

Reference: NY TImes