Estimating the gendered impact of COVID-19

The extent of gendered COVID-19 impact remains undetermined for the lack of sex-disaggregated data. The prevailing view puts males nearly twice as impacted as females. Globally, access to resources and their usage are gendered- mostly favoring males. Gender gaps widen during natural/man-made calamities and pandemics. Modeling estimates of impact for top 70 countries reporting >300 sex-disaggregated COVID-19 deaths (>80% of total), indicates average mortality sex (male:female) ratio (COVID-MSR) of 1.37±0.30 (95% confidence interval:1.30-1.44; range:0.85-2.47) against prevalent pre-pandemic MSR of 1.79±0.41 (1.70-1.89; range:0.93-2.99). Contrary to the prevailing view, widened gender gaps globally increased female mortality by 19.57±21.16% (14.62%-24.88%; range: -22.46 to +68.50%) causing an estimated 22.03% excess deaths (360 thousand by 30 December 2021). Identification of factors favoring gendered impacts is needed for equitable pandemic management. One-Sentence Summary ‘Missing Females’ in COVID-19 ?