New research may reveal why women get severe COVID-19 at about half the rate as men. Women have more of a certain type of immune cell that fights infections in mucosal tissue, and these immune cells amass in the lungs, poised to attack the COVID virus, according to a new study. “Better armed with these specialized immune cells, women appear to be more equipped to fight some of the most severe impacts of COVID-19, notably the respiratory infections that can become life-threatening,” says Daniel Saban, an associate professor in the ophthalmology department and in the immunology department at Duke University. Saban says the investigation began last spring as COVID first spread and he was sidelined from his normal caseload studying eye diseases. A piece of equipment in his lab—a device that can perform 36-color flow cytometry—was sitting idle, so he decided to use it to examine blood samples from COVID patients. …