Ten months into the pandemic and the world's public health system has failed miserably. Test results still take days in some locations. Elon Musk took 4 tests in one day with half being positive and half being negative so testing is no better than a coin flip. Public health leaders are pinning their hopes on vaccines, masks, and social distancing while ignoring the amazingly promising results from vitamin D.
The populations that have been hit hardest by COVID 19 share a common characteristic... low vitamin D levels. This includes Blacks, Mediterraneans, the obese, and the elderly. The obese store vitamin D in fat where it is inaccessible quickly. Blacks and darker-skinned populations evolved in sunny equatorial regions and thus don't store vitamin D as well as light-skinned populations. Of course, correlation is not necessarily causation, but there is more... a lot more.
Some of the data are jaw-dropping. In one study, 1 in 50 with adequate D levels were hospitalized; while 13 in 26 with inadequate D levels were hospitalized. Obviously, there can be confounding factors, but some studies attempt to weed those out and still found a correlation to vitamin D levels. Whether that's a cause or an effect is a reasonable debate and that's what some of the clinical trials are trying to ferret out. As this is written, 67 clinical trials on vitamin D are underway. That's impressive for a natural prohormone that cannot be patented and thus provides no financial incentive to study.
When Summit, the world's 2nd largest supercomputer, looked at 44,000 genes and 17,000 samples, it crunched data for an entire week and finally recommended several therapeutics to treat COVID 19... and one of those treatments was vitamin D!
In Sweden, native Swedes have three times less prevalence of COVID 19 than their dark-skinned immigrant populations. Of course, correlation isn't causation, but there are SO MANY CORRELATIONS!
Medical science prefers to wait and see. Yet the logical approach would be to start taking vitamin D now and THEN see what the studies show. When I mention vitamin D to strangers, they are typically clueless about its potential, but the medical professionals I've talked to in the past few months overwhelmingly take vitamin D. Dr. Fauci when directly asked, admitted to taking vitamin D himself, but he doesn't mention it in his nearly daily press interviews.
How hard would it be for public health officials after mentioning masks and social distancing to add, "We also recommend that everyone take vitamin D. We don't know for sure that it will help, but the data are promising and the downside risk is low. It has health benefits beyond just protection from COVID 19 and the overwhelming majority of Americans are deficient in vitamin D so it would be a good idea anyway."
At less than ten cents/day, taking vitamin D should be a no-brainer.
I'd love to add a dozen links to studies on vitamin D, but this post is already too long. Sorry. Just search for vitamin D COVID 19 and you'll find the studies yourself. They are eye-opening.