The public health organizations and governments fail to advice the public about simple but effective measures to fight the COVID-19 epidemics.

WUWT has published my paper,  reminding that increasing absolute humidity in public places is an effective way to contain spread of SARS-CoV-2, the virus causing COVID-19 disease.

Taking Vitamin D is one of the most effective ways to sharply reduce one’s risk of getting infected with COVID-19. Vitamin D boosts the immune system against viral and bacterial respiratory infections. The best way to get vitamin D is multivitamin supplements.

New York City, the new epicenter of COVID-19, is estimated to have one of the highest concentrations of D-deficient persons in the US, although there are many other contributing problems.

Taking vitamin D works for individuals with vitamin D deficiency, between 40%-80% of the US population. Don’t try to find out what your level of vitamin D is, just take multivitamins containing it. Recommended adult daily amount is 800-1,000 IU.

Studies have shown that taking vitamin D by persons with vitamin D deficiency decreases their risks of infection 2-3 times! In other words, 40%-80% of Americans have so low level of vitamin D that it increases their risk of respiratory infection 2-3 times, varying among the studies. Individuals with low levels of vitamin D tend to live together. NY, WA, MA are all states expected to have large percentage of D-deficient persons. That suggests that a simple step of taking

Apparently, the modern medical science discovered the role that vitamin D plays in the immune system response to respiratory illness agents only recently, in 2005-2015.

From MDPI Nutrients (2015):

An entirely new facet of vitamin D effects, distinct from its action on homeostasis and bone metabolism, is increasingly being appreciated. These non-classical effects of vitamin D have now been acknowledged as important components of vitamin D physiology. The fact that the active form of vitamin D, 1,25-dihydroxyvitamin D3, is a regulator of immune responses has been recently discovered. The effects of vitamin D on both the innate and adaptive immune responses has reached a new horizon with the realisation that the intracrine metabolism of vitamin D in immune cells may be a control point in immunity to infection and in chronic inflammatory disease. Because such non-classical effects of vitamin D have now been accepted, coupled with the fact that vitamin D insufficiency is presently a global health issue even in developed countries, new interest has been raised concerning disease development.

From BMJ (BMJ 2017;356:i6583), Vitamin D supplementation to prevent acute respiratory tract infections: systematic review and meta-analysis of individual participant data:

Vitamin D supplementation reduced the risk of acute respiratory tract infection among all participants … Among those receiving daily or weekly vitamin D, protective effects were stronger in those with baseline 25-hydroxyvitamin D levels <25 nmol/L (adjusted odds ratio 0.30, 0.17 to 0.53)

Yes, average of many studies D has shown that persons with low vitamin D levels taking vitamin D supplement had 3.3 times lesser incidence of acute respiratory tract infection than non-taking vitamin D supplement. Further:

Use of vitamin D did not influence risk of serious adverse events of any cause 

Finally:

Conclusions Vitamin D supplementation was safe and it protected against acute respiratory tract infection overall. Patients who were very vitamin D deficient and those not receiving bolus doses experienced the most benefit.

(draft, March 28, 2020)

via Science Defies Politics

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March 28, 2020 at 07:20PM