Coronavirus gender gap: Scientists try to explain why men are much more likely to die of COVID-19 - CBS News

When Florida couple Cecilia and Marvin Lawton were infected with the coronavirus, their daughter Briana worried her mother was most at risk because of her history of high blood pressure, diabetes and respiratory illness.

Researchers have been studying the effects of the coronavirus on both men and women, and they've found that men are more likely to suffer worse outcomes from the disease, and are as much as 2.4 times more likely to die.

The coronavirus' gender gap is similar to those seen with diseases like influenza and hepatitis, which women tend to recover from faster than men.

Women also generally mount stronger immune responses from vaccines. .

"One of the biggest questions that I have is the extent to which these differences between men and women are being mediated by our hormones versus our genes," said Sabra Klein, who studies gender differences in immune response to viruses and vaccination at Johns Hopkins. .