Over a week ago, prime minister Rutte announced that the measures put in place to tackle the current corona crisis are being extended. On the short term these should be effective in protecting the population’s health and preventing straining our health care. APH researchers Petra Verdonk (associate professor at Amsterdam UMC) and Irene van Valkengoed (assistant professor at Amsterdam UMC) urge that research on this virus and evaluation of measures should take into consideration the differences in (un)wanted effects on health of men and women.
At the moment, research is being financed and started in an admirable pace. In doing so, it is essential that man-woman differences are taken into account. For example, there appears to be a difference in mortality. Such differences could be attributed to gender, biological differences that affect the course of an infection, such as a less efficient immune system in men. Unfortunately, reporting gender differences in statistics is non standard.
Read the full article in 'Trouw' (in Dutch).