FIGURE 1.

Illustrative profile match of albumin decrease with age and risk of COVID‐19. Levels of albumin binding changes during ageing making older males more vulnerable after 50 years and females after 65. Serum albumin levels of males (a) decrease with age earlier than those of females (b) (derived from Weaving et al., 2016). SARS‐CoV2 virions, antibodies, excess waste and factors from other illnesses reduce the tolerance of unbound albumin further (c). When the number of ligands caused by COVID‐19 (c) exceeds that of either the male HSA binding tolerance (a) or the female HSA binding tolerance (b), the ability of HSA to transport nutrients is exhausted. The implication is that as SARS‐CoV2 virions enter the system they, and the consequential antibodies and other created ligands, block the natural ability of HSA to bind the correct nutrients causing cellular stress and crisis in the systemic system affecting all organs, leading to excess death rates in both males and females as illustrated (curves derived from data of Islam et al., 2021). Human figures designed by Tartila/Freepik