(Jeremy Rossman/ The Conversation) — For COVID-19, age and sex appear to be strong predictors of who lives and who dies.
The fatality rate for the disease is estimated to be 0.66%, according to data from China. In other words, 0.66% of people who are formally diagnosed with COVID-19, die. But the rate varies dramatically for different age groups, ranging from 0.0016% for children under ten to 7.8% in people over 79. Similar rates are seen in New York city.
Recent studies have shown that gender is a risk factor, too. Men are at a greater risk of dying from COVID-19 than women.
Data from China shows that men have 1.65 times the risk of dying from COVID-19 and in New York city, the rate is 1.77 times greater. Yet overall, men and women have roughly similar risks of getting the virus.
A declining immune system?
The ability of the human immune system to fight off pathogens declines over time and is significantly reduced in those over 70. Recent results show that in bad cases of COVID-19, there is a severe deficiency in certain classes of immune cells that fight off infections. These immune cells are known to be less active in the elderly, suggesting that an age-related decline in immune function may put the elderly at risk of more severe COVID-19 disease. Yet many of the most severe cases of COVID-19 are associated with over activation of the immune system. (…)