TY - JOUR
T1 - A finding of sex similarities rather than differences in COVID-19 outcomes
AU - Shattuck-Heidorn, Heather
AU - Danielsen, Ann Caroline
AU - Gompers, Annika
AU - Bruch, Joseph Dov
AU - Zhao, Helen
AU - Boulicault, Marion
AU - Marsella, Jamie
AU - Richardson, Sarah S.
PY - 2021/9
Y1 - 2021/9
N2 - The sex disparity in COVID-19 mortality varies widely and is of uncertain origin. In their recent Article, Takahashi et al.1 assess immune phenotype in a sample of patients with COVID-19 and conclude that the “immune landscape in COVID-19 patients is considerably different between the sexes”, warranting different vaccine and therapeutic regimes for men and women—a claim that was disseminated widely following the publication2. Here we argue that these inferences are not supported by their findings and that the study does not demonstrate that biological sex explains COVID-19 outcomes among patients. The study overstates its findings and factors beyond innate sex are treated superficially in analysing the causes of gender or sex disparities in COVID-19 disease outcomes.
AB - The sex disparity in COVID-19 mortality varies widely and is of uncertain origin. In their recent Article, Takahashi et al.1 assess immune phenotype in a sample of patients with COVID-19 and conclude that the “immune landscape in COVID-19 patients is considerably different between the sexes”, warranting different vaccine and therapeutic regimes for men and women—a claim that was disseminated widely following the publication2. Here we argue that these inferences are not supported by their findings and that the study does not demonstrate that biological sex explains COVID-19 outcomes among patients. The study overstates its findings and factors beyond innate sex are treated superficially in analysing the causes of gender or sex disparities in COVID-19 disease outcomes.
U2 - 10.1038/s41586-021-03644-7
DO - 10.1038/s41586-021-03644-7
M3 - Article
SN - 0028-0836
VL - 597
SP - E7 – E9
JO - Nature
JF - Nature
IS - 7877
ER -