Originally Posted by
jugofpropwash
've also read some reports that most victims are male - I wonder if that relates to the smoking rates in China? (I've seen various numbers, but apparently somewhere around 50 percent of the men but few women smoke.) Areas of China also have a lot of pollution - if the virus affects the lungs, then surely pollution and smoking aren't going to help.
According to the China National Health Commission press conference last Tuesday, two-thirds of coronavirus fatalities in that country had at that point been male, 80% were over 60 years of age and 75% had underlying diseases -- cardiovascular disease, diabetes, etc.
The Worldometers site --
https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/ -- is doing a good job of keeping a summary of reliable information from the various authorities around the world up to date and easily accessible.
Your information on rates of cigarette smoking and China appears to be accurate:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6546632/