Various media have been quick to affirm that countries led by women have had fewer victims from COVID-19 , which is surely done with the purpose of assessing their good management in a world led by men.
But, in addition to the risk involved in entering into evaluations of this type (if we value people based on their sex, then we can approach a slippery slope of the type: why not do it based on their skin color or their height or age?), this statement is false.
More victims the more women
In fact, not only are there no significant differences between countries in terms of victims based on the sex of their leaders, but countries where there are more women in their legislature (Parliament or Congress) have more victims .
These are the findings revealed by a new study based on an analysis carried out through multiple methodological approaches. There are no statistically significant differences between the reported Covid-19 mortality rates in countries led by men or women.
To be sure, death rates depend on many variables, including population density, access to healthcare, reporting protocols, and possibly temperature and humidity levels … making it difficult to isolate the impact of sex of the leader. But when they do, the opposite happens: the more women there are in the legislature, the more deaths are reported.
Also freer countries tend to have higher reported mortality rates in the month after the first case, but as time progresses, the differences between Free, Partially Free and Not Free become less marked.
Richer countries and those with older populations have more reported deaths.
The length of land borders has no effect on reported Covid-19 deaths, and land area matters at some times but not others.
Ultimately, the country’s cultural values offer a more substantive explanation of the COVID-19 results . However, there is a widespread perception that countries led by women have fared better during the pandemic, perhaps because of a data selection bias and Western media bias that amplified the successes of women leaders in the countries of the United States. OECD.
Beyond the validity of this study, the reliability of its statistical analyzes, and all the nuances that we can use, we should try to look further: in the face of a multifactorial pandemic, focus on a single factor (sex), with which Furthermore, we can only establish correlations and not causal links. It is bad science, even bad propaganda : it is important to value women who do it well; and to men. But it is important that our assessment does not tend to be rude by grouping people by categories (sex, race, religion, etc.). And, above all, it is important that if we are going to use this form of claim, we do so with reliable data: