DailyOh! Why more men are testing positive for coronavirus, to how Boris Johnson could have got the infection
The answer could lie in smoking, spitting and not washing hands.
Hi there,
The nationwide lockdown to fight coronavirus entered Day 3 today. As many as 724 people have tested positive. Of these 724 patients, 67 have recovered following treatment, while 17 have lost their lives. These are figures from this morning so by the time you read this, it would have risen further up. Globally, over 5,00,000 people have been infected by the virus and more than 24,000 have died. On the bright side, about 1,24,000 people have also recovered.
But scientists and doctors have noticed a strange trend in the number of deaths. We call it strange because nobody has been able to explain it so far. What trend are we talking about? Well, coronavirus is infecting and killing more men than women. One analysis from China found a fatality rate of 2.8 per cent in men compared to 1.7 per cent in women. And it’s not just China which has noticed the trend. It has been replicated in countries such as Italy, Spain and France.
In Italy, men have accounted for 71 per cent deaths and, in Spain, twice as many men as women have died. So far, we thought the virus discriminated only on the basis of age. Now, we know it discriminates on the basis of gender too. But is it really discriminating between sexes or smokers and non-smokers? There is no confirmed answer to that, but one of the reasons being cited for the trend is that more men, than women, smoke. Since smoking damages lungs, the virus is more likely to prove a greater danger for men.
So damaged lungs could explain more deaths, but what explains the greater number of infections in men? That again could have a smoking connection. One of the theories is that men smoke more and hence tend to touch their lips more than women. So everyone who smokes, including women, must watch out. Also, there is no conclusive study to prove this but general observations suggest men tend to be more unhygienic. Haven’t you spotted them spitting in public or scratching unmentionable areas, that too in public? A study suggests that men tend to wash their hands less often compared to women.
This isn’t meant to be a clean chit to women. Many women leave public toilet seats dirty. Hope the pandemic will serve as a lesson for all of us, since this crisis has taught us how some unhygienic practices threaten not just us but also those who come in contact with us. For now, avoid contact. Stay indoors. Do not take this lightly and don’t think this can’t happen to you. The virus is unsparing. Even British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has tested positive for the virus. He has been talking about how he went about shaking hands with people who had tested positive for the virus.
Now, this shouldn’t happen to anyone, but if someone is calling it upon themselves, what can we say?
Boris Johnson “I shook hands with Coronavirus patients. I shook hands with everybody. I will go on shaking hands with everybody” now has Coronavirus. pic.twitter.com/K9iHtWDscv
— Tory Fibs (@ToryFibs) March 27, 2020
Did you get to know that even Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) has cancelled its shakhas, basically their training centres, for now? RSS head Mohan Bhagwat has said everything needs to be done to make social distancing a success. We are glad people are talking about maintaining distance. We are sure you have had those annoying moments when strangers would come and stand so close it made you uncomfortable, even angry. We feel you. We have had those moments too.
But let us get back to RSS shakhas. Strangely, RSS shakhas that are held early every morning see attendance thin down during monsoons. The revelation was made in a 2018 report presented by RSS general secretary Suresh Joshi at the Akhil Bharatiya Pratinidhi Sabha. The report said there are 58,967 shakhas functional at 37,190 places across the country. In 2017, the number stood at 57,165, functional at 36,729 locations. This showed a decrease of 1,556. So, what explains people not attending shakhas, even without the Covid-19 threat looming? Rains! Most shakhas are held in the open and that perhaps deters people from attending. Cut to 2020, what is it that we would not do to soak in the rain once again? Everything. For now, that everything means – staying inside.
But as you sit at home, do not use social media and WhatsApp groups to spread rumours like Bollywood superstar Amitabh Bachchan. Bachchan Senior has one Kaun Banega ‘Covidiot Of The Day’ challenge. Now, he is Covidiot Of The ‘Day’, but he has been up to it for days.
The actor has been tweeting lies, rumours and superstitions and then deleting them after facing backlash. The worry is that by the time he deletes his posts, many people would have read and believed them. In one of his videos, Mr Bachchan said that flies spread coronavirus. It took the Health Ministry to deny the claim. The video was deleted from Twitter but is still available on Instagram. Imagine if Bachchan can’t even ensure a video is deleted from all his social media platforms, what does he know about science? We say, zilch.
View this post on InstagramA post shared by Amitabh Bachchan (@amitabhbachchan.ab) on
In one of his tweets, he said, 5 pm on March 22, is the very time when 'evil forces were most active' and that 'clapping or shankh vibrations would ward them off'. He deleted that tweet too. Don’t listen to Mr Bachchan (for now), don’t be a Covidiot.
Now, while you must not listen to Amitabh Bhachchan, should you listen to choreographer Farah Khan? If you want our advice, we say listen, but decide on your own. Farah Khan is angry with film stars posting fitness videos on social media.
The bigger epidemic.. work out videos!! ???? don’t make me feel worse pls! pic.twitter.com/NYs4tFwm3a
— Farah Khan (@TheFarahKhan) March 26, 2020
She says, this reflects privilege and coronavirus is a serious threat. Okay, it is more serious. But fitness is serious too.
And people who are staying at home need motivation and ideas on how to kill time. Film stars should inspire people. Okay, maybe not the likes of Amitabh Bachchan, but others should. Others like Katrina Kaif. 
View this post on InstagramA post shared by Katrina Kaif (@katrinakaif) on
But Farah Khan’s message got us thinking about privilege. Privilege is our Word Of The Day.
Privilege comes from the Latin word ‘privilegium’, which means a law for just one person, and means a benefit enjoyed by an individual or group beyond what's available to others. So, privilege in today’s times means benefits or resources that only some have. Coronavirus has for now taken away everyone’s privilege of being able to get out of their homes. But it has accorded that privilege to animals for now. With humans not free to step outside, animals are reclaiming their space.
Again Nilgai are natural to Noida. In surrounding area there are a lot of them. They often get hit by traffic. https://t.co/lnU6oFZIP0
— Parveen Kaswan, IFS (@ParveenKaswan) March 27, 2020
But all this happened because a virus originated in China. Now, we don’t blame any country if a virus originates in its territory. China won’t have the same privilege. China stands accused of hiding the spread and the danger of the virus so that business was not hit. Imagine if Covid-19 cases started being reported in China around November-end. Maybe earlier; who knows, given China’s ability to withhold information. If only the country had informed other nations about it and stopped its people from travelling abroad and people from other countries from travelling in, this wouldn’t have turned out the way it has turned out.
But when Estonia, a European country, tried to initiate discussions around China’s role in the spread at the United Nation Security Council (UNSC), guess who acted as a roadblock? Russia and South Africa.
Russia and South Africa said that there was no direct link between the spread of virus and threat to peace and security of the world. Some still believe the world’s security is not at risk. We wonder how.
On its part, China shot down the proposal saying that there was no consensus within the UNSC, a mandatory requirement to take up any proposal.
Talking of UNSC, while China is a permanent member of the UNSC, India is not. In fact, China has been coming in the way of India’s entry into the elite block for a long time now. But do you know who supported China’s entry? Jawaharlal Nehru.
Some say he did that to please Mao Zedong to forge stronger relations with China. Others say, he did it because he trusted in China as an ally and saw India and China as partners in the Asian growth story. This is perhaps the reason why when China attacked India in 1962, Nehru was deeply hurt. Historians say Nehru was a changed man after the attack and that eventually led to his death in 1964.
Dealing with a breach of trust is difficult. But dealing with coronavirus is more tedious. The best way, as experts have said it, for now, is to stay locked up in this lockdown.
The government is taking steps to reduce the impact the lockdown could have on the economy. The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) also pitched in today. The most important move RBI announced was about the three-month moratorium on term loans and EMIs. If you want to know about this and the other measures announced in detail, read this.
We leave you on this note.
Take good care of yourself.
We will be back on Monday. Till then, stay home and spend time on what you enjoy. If you want our advice, you can watch Special Ops on Hotstar, if you haven't already. What is it about? Read here.