Life Under Coronavirus

[_EAllusion]

[quote=Icarus post_id=1221602 time=1586778853 user_id=19355]
Being black is a risk factor too.
[/quote]

That one isn't cross-cultural, though. It's a correlation with other risk factors in the US - poor access to health care, higher employment in low-paying service sector jobs that remain open and interact with the public, higher incidence of heart disease, diabetes, etc., greater reliance on public transportation, and so on.

[_Icarus]

My neighbor just told me that the reason black people are high risk is because of poor hygiene. Something I'd expect to hear from Ajax.

[_Icarus]

Being black is a risk factor too.

To piggyback on that statement. From CNN:

“If few black Americans are getting tested for HIV or the coronavirus, you could potentially have infected people unknowingly spreading both diseases through the community.

Says Allen, "It creates the perfect storm of disproportionate numbers."”

CNN also suggests since Blacks are more likely to be in the service industry they’re at risk of catching the CV. Whatever the case may be, whether it’s lifestyle-induced issues like sexual behavior, diet, or ignoring social distancing, I’m not sure how they, or anyone, can get tested. Even people who, like CNN suggests, have magically risen out of poverty can’t get tested even though PRESIDENT Trump SAID TESTS ARE AVAILABLE AND ANYONE WHO WANTS ONE CAN GET TESTED.

I’m starting to believe the Right actually enjoys being lied to. Like. I’m not being facetious. I think it makes them feel good. It’s a sort of coping mechanism they enjoy. It’s the oddest thing...

- Doc

Speaking of which

A full month of broken promises by Trump

[_Lemmie]

Just checking in, Hope all is well with you and your familIes, especially MsJack, with your little ones!

I’ve got two college age boys under my feet now who, being the sweet lovely boys they are, are still running me ragged while we are all trying to shelter in place while they finish their online semesters, so I can only imagine the challenges someone with small children faces!

For example, all tracks, hiking paths, parks and outdoor places are gradually being locked up or caution-taped here, and since every person in our house is used to a very physical lifestyle, pretty much all I can do to avoid people while getting activity is to wrangle my brood for a walk down the middle of the streets, like I’m John Wayne herding cattle with a bunch of little kids for crew. (Although fact that we all have gloves, sunglasses, earbuds, with bandannas and/or n-95 masks covering our mouths makes us look more like a crew getting ready to knock over a bank or two. We wave at the few cops we see, and they wave back. Surreal.)

[_MsJack]

Thanks, Lemmie. I'm glad your boys are adjusting. My two homeschool students don't like their new teacher and I may have made one of them write "I will not swear at my teacher" out on paper 20 times. ;-)

Pregnancy is going well! I'll have to post some pictures of the baby's nursery later. Since I'm pretty much done with that, I painted and organized my study and my master bedroom and am running out of household projects to work on.

Just got my stimulus deposit today! Waiting to see if they'll be forking over my XH's check, too. (He owes me thousands in back child support, but I suspect he may not have filed taxes for 2018 or 2019.)

[_Dr Exiled]

One of the moms on my son's club baseball team posted that on the first day of home school, both of her kids were suspended for fighting .... I'm sure many have seen that meme go around.



On another note, I feel like a fish in a blender waiting for the power to be turned on. I almost want to be exposed to the corona virus and get it over with so my family and me can get immunity and move on.

[Guest]

but there was no way to tell if that was the result of cultural factors or something related to sexual dimorphism.

The answer could be evolution. Sociology is not hard science, but biology is.

"Specifically, they wanted to test the 'unguarded X hypothesis' which suggests that the Y chromosome in heterogametic sexes -- those with XY (male) sex chromosomes rather than XX (female) sex chromosomes -- is less able to protect an individual from harmful genes expressed on the X chromosome. The hypothesis suggests that, as the Y chromosome is smaller than the X chromosome, and in some cases absent, it is unable to 'hide' an X chromosome that carries harmful mutations, which may later expose the individual to health threats."
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2 ... 141650.htm

"Mammal study explains 'why females live longer'
https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-52007780

[_DoubtingThomas]

The theory of evolution always impresses me, it explains a lot of things.

[_MsJack]

The ax partially fell for me and my husband today; he's being furloughed 4/20 - 5/15 (it's his entire team, they aren't singling him out). They gave him a great performance review and said they absolutely hope to bring him back mid-May. They're also giving him his annual bonus, so between that and the stimulus checks, even without applying for unemployment, we aren't financially hurting (yet). Overall we are well-prepared for this.

I'm laughing though because it's my third baby and somehow it's the third time I'm approaching my due date and I'm bringing home a paycheck and the baby daddy is not.

[_EAllusion]

[quote=DoubtingThomas post_id=1221676 time=1586890385 user_id=19018]
[quote=EAllusion post_id=1221585 time=1586751031 user_id=1078]but there was no way to tell if that was the result of cultural factors or something related to sexual dimorphism. [/quote]

The answer could be [b]evolution[/b]. Sociology is not hard science, but biology is.

"Specifically, they wanted to test the 'unguarded X hypothesis' which suggests that the Y chromosome in heterogametic sexes -- those with XY (male) sex chromosomes rather than XX (female) sex chromosomes -- is less able to protect an individual from harmful genes expressed on the X chromosome. The hypothesis suggests that, as the Y chromosome is smaller than the X chromosome, and in some cases absent, it is unable to 'hide' an X chromosome that carries harmful mutations, which [b]may later expose the individual to health threats[/b]."
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2 ... 141650.htm

"Mammal study explains 'why females live longer'
https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-52007780
[/quote]
I studied organic evolution as it relates to infectious diseases for the better part of a semester in college. And let me tell, my education in cell biology with some focused interest on this kind of thing isn't helping at all.

Ok, that might be a slight exaggeration. I can at least still read contemporary published papers and usually understand them well. So that's something. But it's not a lot.

With respect to this issue, the X chromosome has a high density of genes and regulatory elements related to immune system function. There are other known instances of differing responses to diseases between males and females because of this. It's just in this case, no one really knows what's going on here in terms of the mechanism causing the difference. You can vaguely gesture at sexual dimorphism in the variance of immune systems, but that doesn't say all that much.

While reading about this, I did read a paper studying this phenomenon in SARS-COV in mice. There are probably differing outcomes between the sexes in OG SARS and MERS as well.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5450662/

Because they were able to change the female disease outcomes to male-like by ovariectomies or administering a estrogen receptor antagonist, they concluded evidence suggests the difference is mediated at the hormonal signaling level.