Vitamin D supplements protect against COVID-19.

By: Nikita Kochhar
February 11 2022

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Though high vitamin D levels have been linked with less severe COVID-19 infection, the supplement doesn't protect against the virus.A post on Facebook shared by YouTuber Ivor Cummins states that Vitamin D helps fight COVID-19. The claim is based on an Israeli study and is misleading. The study was published in the journal PLOS ONE on February 8, 2022, and is peer-reviewed. It examined if there is any pre-infection relationship between disease severity and death due to SARS-COV-2 and vitamin D deficiency. The research was conducted by monitoring the records of 1,176 individuals admitted to the Galilee Medical Center (GMC) in Nahariya, Israel, between April 7, 2020, and February 4, 2021, with positive PCR tests for COVID-19. The researchers measured the vitamin D levels of the candidates between 14 to 730 days before testing positive. The report found that out of the total patients admitted on the said dates, the study looked at the vitamin D levels of 253 patients who tested positive with COVID-19. Patients with a more severe infection had lower vitamin D levels than those with a mild form of the virus. The study concluded that patients with a vitamin D deficiency were 14 times more likely to have severe COVID-19 than those with high vitamin D levels. Even though high vitamin D levels were linked to less severe cases of COVID-19, the study clearly stated that "vitamin supplements were not a substitute for vaccines, but rather a way to keep immunity levels from falling." Moreover, the study was conducted before COVID-19 vaccines were widely available. Therefore, it would be highly misleading to say that vitamin-D supplements protect against the virus, as we cannot replace them with vaccines. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, getting the COVID-19 vaccine jab can reduce a person's probability of getting infected and spreading the virus to others. "Vaccines can also help prevent serious illness and death," the CDC says. The COVID-19 pandemic has given rise to a lot of potentially dangerous misinformation. For reliable advice on COVID-19, including symptoms, prevention, and available treatment, please refer to the World Health Organization or your national healthcare authority.