Covid-19: Why do More Men Die than Women?

As Covid-19 sweeps through nations at a seemingly unstoppable rate, scientists desperately try to understand it. Most importantly they are seeking to find out what makes one person more vulnerable than another.

One trend that has become apparent from the data across every country is men are at a higher risk of dying than women.

“We are seeing with every country that provides us with sex-disaggregated data that men are more likely to die from the virus, anything from 10 percent to more than twice as likely,” said professor Sarah Hawkes, the director of the UCL Centre for Gender and Global Health in the UK.

Scientists believe part of the disparity is driven by behaviour: men are more likely to smoke and drink heavily. However, this cannot explain the data entirely.

Hormonal differences are believed to also play a role; as well as genetic differences. Many of the genes that regulate the immune system are found on the X chromosome- men have one X chromosome whereas women have two.

“We know that women’s immune systems function differently to men’s – after all, women’s bodies are designed to host a foetus for nine months at a time without it being rejected as a foreign body,” professor Hawkes said.

In general women’s immune systems launch a better defence against infection and  viruses.

Dr Sabra Klein, an immunologist has said she is disappointed by the lack of awareness of this issue:

“I am disappointed that many of the public health officials around the world are not speaking out that being male is indeed a risk factor for a more severe outcome and, in particular, being an older male. I do think that there could be public heath messaging [that] could occur in that context.” she said.

Read More: France 24

Coronavirus Job Loses Estimated at 47 million, Unemployment Rate 32%

Economists at the Fed’s St. Louis district have warned that the Covid-19 outbreak could see 47 million people lose their jobs, and cause an unemployment rate of 32%.

The analysis estimated 67 million Americans are in jobs that are at high risk of being affected by the economic fallout of the pandemic.

“These are very large numbers by historical standards, but this is a rather unique shock that is unlike any other experienced by the U.S. economy in the last 100 years,” St. Louis Fed economist Miguel Faria-e-Castro wrote in a research paper posted last week.

Already a record 3.3 million has filled initial jobless claims for the week ending March 21st.

However, bleak as these estimates look St. Louis Fed President James Bullard also reminded the nation that the country is facing a unique set of circumstances. Bullard said the jobless number “will be unparalleled, but don’t get discouraged. This is a special quarter, and once the virus goes away and if we play our cards right and keep everything intact, then everyone will go back to work and everything will be fine.”

Read More: CNBC

Megachurch Pastor, Tampa Fl, Arrested After Violating Stay at Home Order

Pastor Rodney Howard-Browne held his Sunday service to a 500 strong congregation on Sunday despite a safer-at-home order in place in the bid to halt coronavirus.

The River at Tampa Bay Church held two services on Sunday. After which police issued an arrest warrant for Howard-Browne. He turned himself in and was fined $500.

“His reckless disregard for human life put hundreds of people in his congregation at risk and thousands of residents who may interact with them this week in danger,” Sheriff Chad Chronister said at a press conference Monday afternoon. “They have access to technology allowing them to live stream their services over the internet and broadcast to their 400 members from the safety of their own homes, but instead they chose to gather at church.”

Read More: Fox News

British Prime Minister and Prince of Wales Test Positive for Covid-19

It was announced that British PM Boris Johnson has tested positive for Coronavirus. The Prime Minister said he had a fever and persistent cough and was currently self isolating in Downing Street. He assured the British people his symptoms were mild and he was continuing with the job of running the nation. The country’s Health Secretary is also ill with the virus.

Prince Charles, the heir to the throne is also suffering from Coronavirus it was announced. The 71 Prince tested positive earlier this week. He is said to have mild symptoms and is staying the the Queen’s Scottish Highland estate of Balmoral.

Read More: BBC

Fox Primetime Host Trish Regan Leaves Network: Coronavirus Impeachment Scam

Trish Regan primetime  host a Fox Business Network has abruptly left the network. Her departure comes after she suggested the Chinese coronavirus could lead to another attempt to  impeach  Trump.

“We thank her for her contributions to the network over the years and wish her continued success in her future endeavors,” a Fox Business Network spokesperson said in a statement. “We will continue our reduced live primetime schedule for the foreseeable future in an effort to allocate staff resources to continuous breaking news coverage on the Coronavirus crisis.”

Regan met with criticism when she hosted a segment accusing the Democrat Party and the corporate media of carrying out a “Coronavirus Impeachment Scam.” She said to her viewers:

“We’ve reached a tipping point. The chorus of hate being leveled at the president is nearing a crescendo as Democrats blame him and only him for a virus that originated halfway around the world,…. This is yet another attempt to impeach the president.”

“Many in the liberal media using, and I mean using, coronavirus in an attempt to demonize and destroy the president,” she added.

Read More: Beitbart

President Trump Prepares Criteria for U.S. County Governors to Access Risk

The President has written to governors in every local region to put forward guidelines to help each county access the risk of Coronavirus for them. The President is keen to enable low risk regions of the country to operate with less strict restrictions, as soon as possible.

“This is what we envision: Our expanded testing capabilities will quickly enable us to publish criteria, developed in close coordination with the Nation’s public health officials and scientists to help classify counties with respect to continued risks posed by the virus,” Trump wrote.

Each county would be given a federal category: “high risk”, “medium risk” or “low risk”. The categories would be given after all the data for these regions was accessed.

“I want to thank each of you, along with your frontline responders and essential workers, for stepping up to help America confront this unprecedented global pandemic,” Trump wrote.

Read More: Breitabrt

Mobile Phone Industry Looking at Global Tracking System for Covid-19

The mobile phone industry is exploring a tacking system which will use data from customers to create a database to track the spread of Coronavirus.

Some national governments are already using mobile phones to track the virus and monitor those in quarantine.

However, this would be a massive expansion of data sharing across companies and nations. And has lead to security and privacy concerns.

Read More: The Guardian 

Hundreds of CEOs Resigned in the Last Few Months, Why?

In the weeks and months leading up to the stock market crash hundreds of CEOs resigned. Fortune magazine described it as the “great CEO exodus of 2020”. CEOs sold of billions of dollars of stock in their own companies just before the share prices sky dived.

At the end of last year a record number of  1,480 CEOs left their posts. This would not be unusual during a recession, but almost unheard of during a time of financial prosperity. And although their were signs that the global economy was slowing, few would have forecast a global recession.

Furthermore in January this year an additional 219 CEOs stepped down. The Wall Street Journal commented:

Top executives at U.S.-traded companies sold a total of roughly $9.2 billion in shares of their own companies between the start of February and the end of last week, a Wall Street Journal analysis shows.

The selling saved the executives—including many in the financial industry—potential losses totaling $1.9 billion, according to the analysis, as the S&P 500 stock index plunged about 30% from its peak on Feb. 19 through the close of trading March 20.

However it was not only CEOs selling off stocks. Some members of Congress were also selling stocks just before the market went nuts…

Sen. Dianne Feinstein of California and three of her Senate colleagues reported selling off stocks worth millions of dollars in the days before the coronavirus outbreak crashed the market, according to reports.

The data is listed on a U.S. Senate website containing financial disclosures from Senate members.

Read More: End of the American Dream

DOW Jumps 2,112 Points- Biggest Ever

The US equity markets made their biggest ever signal day gains. The optimism was caused mind reports the $2 trillion Covid-19 stimulus package was close to being agreed.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average a 2,112 point gain, the biggest ever, or 11 percent, while the S&P 500 gained over 9.3 percent and the Nasdaq over 8.1 percent.

President Trump’s comments that he favours opening up the economy sooner rather than later also boosted investor confidence.

Read More: Fox Business 

Russia Uses Facial Recognition Cameras to Enforce Quarantine

Russia is using a network of 100,00 cameras in the capital Moscow to track anyone breaking quarantine during the Coronavirus outbreak.

The cameras are controlled from a purpose-built coronavirus control centre.

Russia has created a database of images, and personal data from those with Covid-19 and this is used to monitor for anyone on the streets who should be in quarantine.

South Korea, Hong Kong, Taiwan have also used personal data from cell phones to track people in quarantine.

Read More: France 24

Trump Hopes to See Economy Restarted by Easter

President Trump has said that he’d like to see the economy restarted by Easter. Saying, “would love to have the country opened up and just raring to go by Easter.”

The President has also said that the “cure cannot be worse” than the disease. Indicating that steps to halt the Coronavirus have to be weighed against the harm it will do to the American economy.

However, top officials have tempered the President’s positive outlook warning that this crisis could continue for many weeks to come. The task force has said that decisions around lifting restrictions will be taken at a later date by looking at all the fresh data available.

Read More: Fox News

Democrats Want to Introduce Digital Dollar in Stimulus Bill

Democrats in Congress proposed introducing the digital dollar in their draft Covid-19 stimulus bill.

The draft Democrat Bill introduces the concept of a Digital Dollar, which represents either a liability of any Federal Reserve bank, or money redeemable at a bank. In the latter case, the bill introduces the concept of a pass-through digital dollar wallet, which is operated by a bank.

However, Central Banks have warned that the introduction of a digital currency would need to be done with great caution due not only to economic risks, but also cyber security risks.

Read More: Ledger Insights

Random Events, Free Will, Pre-destiny or Something Darker ?