Hello Well Women! Welcome to Part 1 of a 3 Part Series on COVID-19.

Recently the Washington Post reported that among gender-identified covid19 disease cases looking at 20,648 people in Spain, men make up 60 percent of those that progress to the dangerous pneumonia stage. They make up 59 percent of the hospitalizations, 72 percent of the intensive care unit admissions and 65 percent of the deaths. And that's not all. The Guardian reports that "The trend was first seen in China, where one analysis found a fatality rate of 2.8% in men compared with 1.7% in women.

Since then, the pattern has been seen in France, Germany, Iran, Italy, and South Korea. In Italy, men have accounted for 71% of deaths.

So why are men more vulnerable?

On the Well Woman Show this week I share part one of a series of three I'm doing on the impact of sex and gender on health outcomes. Today I have a special episode focused on new research related to disparities between men and women in covid19 and I talk to Professor Sarah Hawkes, professor of global public health at University College London and co-founder with her husband of Global Health 50/50, an initiative that advocates for gender equality in health.

On the show we talk about:

-the distribution of risk and potential response to covid 19

-the underlying reasons why more men than women may suffer worse outcomes

All the information shared today can be found at the show notes at wellwomanlife.com/196show

You can also continue the conversation in the Well Woman Life community group at wellwomanlife.com/facebook

The Well Woman Show is thankful for the support from Natural Awakenings Magazine in New Mexico and High Desert Yoga in Albuquerque.