ORLANDO, Fla. — When it comes to COVID-19, there's been a lot of discussion about risk.
It's been widely shared that anyone can contract the virus, and those who are older or live with an underlying condition stand a greater chance of becoming very sick.
But what about men vs. women? Who stands a greater chance of contracting COVID-19?
A recent report in the Washington Post said that in most states, women are getting the virus more often, while in others, men are. But researchers found data that more men overall are dying from the virus than women.
Here's five things to know about how Florida stacks up by the numbers:
- We analyzed data from the Florida Department of Health. The department releases daily reports on testing, cases, and deaths compiled by each of the 67 Florida counties. They also track cases and share data in a dashboard format. Keep in mind that numbers are a snapshot of a time, as they are ever-changing.
- As of Monday afternoon, more men have contracted the virus than women in Florida. There have been 6,834 cases in men versus 6,178 cases in women.
- For which gender is the virus deadlier? We looked at Monday morning’s report, detailing 236 total deaths in the state: 147 of those were men, while 88 were women. One 60-year-old’s gender was not revealed in the report.
- That means the fatality rate is 2.1 percent for men and 1.4 percent for women in Florida.
- Why are more men dying from the virus in Florida? Doctors still aren't sure.
"Males are getting a bigger proportion of the epidemic. Why, scientifically, we don't know yet," said Dr. Raul Pino, with the Orange County Health Department. "More data needs to be analyzed. Is there anything in the immunological system? Or is it a (result) of more females being at home and the type of work guys do that exposes them more? Those comparisons at some point are going to give us the exact data."