Open Letter: Change Policy on Vitamin D
Dear [Add your own MP or policy maker]
The bottom line is that IF the UK Government had a policy of supplementing the UK population with vitamin D it could prevent 4.6 million people from getting Covid and could have reduced deaths by over 100,000.
The question is: What can we do to get this policy implemented?
The Government advice from 17 April 2020 was:
"There have been some news reports about vitamin D reducing the risk of coronavirus. However, there is no evidence that this is the case."
The advice to this day still states:
"There have been some reports about vitamin D reducing the risk of coronavirus (COVID-19). But there is currently not enough evidence to support taking vitamin D to prevent or treat coronavirus." https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/vitamins-and-minerals/vitamin-d/
As you will see from the evidence below this amounts to medical negligence.
Dr John Campbell has put together a very useful video reviewing two papers on covid and vitamin D. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=au6FKi8aAsA
The first paper is an analysis of health records from the UK Biobank https://www.ukbiobank.ac.uk called:
"Habitual use of vitamin D supplements and risk of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) infection: a prospective study in UK Biobank" https://academic.oup.com/ajcn/advance-article/doi/10.1093/ajcn/nqaa381/6123965 It concludes that:
"Habitual use of vitamin D supplements was significantly associated with a 34% lower risk of COVID-19 infection."
Now when you consider approximately 20% (~13.5 million people) of the UK population are vitamin D deficient - just by encouraging vitamin D supplements you could save almost 4.6 million of them from getting Covid.
Where do I get the number of 13.5 million UK citizens deficient in Vitamin D? There is a recent paper that provides a survey of vitamin D levels in the UK called "'Alarmingly high' vitamin D deficiency in the United Kingdom" https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/12/201215091635.htm
It states:
"Of almost half a million people surveyed, we found that 57 per cent of Asians were severely deficient in vitamin D (levels below 25 nmol/L) in winter/spring and 50.8 per cent in summer and autumn."
"Black Africans were the next most vulnerable (38.5 per cent deficient in winter and 30.8 per cent in summer), followed by mixed race people and Chinese participants. White Europeans had the lowest prevalence of vitamin D deficiency but many are still affected."
"There was a clear seasonal contrast in vitamin D levels among white Europeans, with 17.5 per cent showing a deficiency in winter, compared to 5.9 per cent in summer. The seasonal variations were not as marked in other cultural groups."
So in the UK, it being winter time:
- There are 5 million Asians. ~2.8 million severely deficient.
- There are 2.18 million Black people. ~840,000 severely deficient.
- There are 56.7 million White people. ~9.9 million severely deficient.
So overall about 13.5 million severely deficient or ~20% of the population.
Interesting how vitamin D deficiency in the BAME community correlates with the higher covid cases and deaths found in that community.
The second paper Dr Campbell discusses is from Medical University Hospital Heidelberg, (September 2020) called "Vitamin D Deficiency and Outcome of COVID-19 Patients"
It concludes that (adjusting for age, sex, comorbidities) hospital patients deficient in vitamin D (86% of them) were associated with higher risk of needing mechanical ventilation and death. They were 6.12 times more likely to require mechanical ventilation and 14.73 times more likely to die.
At the end of his presentation Dr Campbell invites you to divide the number of deaths in your country by 14.73 to see how many would have died if the population had sufficient levels of vitamin D.
In the UK covid deaths so far total 115,529 divided by 14.7 gives you 7,843 deaths ..... or a potential reduction of 107,686 deaths.
And now more evidence from Barcelona. MP David Davis calls for Vitamin D therapy to be rolled out 'immediately' after study finds it can 'reduce Covid deaths by up to 60%' – despite scientists saying further research is needed.https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9257521/Study-finds-Vitamin-D-reduces-Covid-deaths-60.html
The evidence is there. In my opinion ignoring it is tantamount to a crime against humanity. But at the very least national regulators, and those that decide health policy, are in breech of their duty of care.
What can we do about it?
Kind regards
[your name]
PS The UK's David Davis MP is not the only politician to recognise the importance of vitamin D.
US Congressman Glenn Grothman introduced a House Resolution to recognize the significant role vitamin D may play in the fight against COVID-19. He said:
"Now, 120 doctors from several of the world’s most prestigious medical institutions concur that there is overwhelming evidence that vitamin D can be effective in decreasing the severity of COVID-19, but our government’s top public health agencies still have not pursued this credible lead."
He added that the:
"unwillingness of these agencies to investigate this lead has undoubtedly cost many lives".