Women experience COVID-19 and the vaccines differently from men. Data from the CDC suggest side effects from the vaccines are worse in women; for example, 63 of the total 66 reported cases of anaphylaxis happened in women. On the other hand, men with COVID-19 are three times more likely to be hospitalized and admitted to ICU than are women, according to Sabra Klein, Ph.D., a professor at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and co-director of the Center for Women's Health, Sex, and Gender Research.
The reason may lie behind women’s hormones, which protect against viruses and also enable pregnant women to transfer some immunity to a fetus during pregnancy. However, those same female responses in immune function that help protect against a virus may become dangerous if the body starts fighting against its own immune system, which can result in an autoimmune disease.
“Eighty percent of all autoimmune disease patients are women,” Klein said.
Research also shows that more women suffer from long-haul COVID than men, although the reason is still unknown.
SOURCE: MedPage Today March 17, 2021