[gmane]

This paper cites 10 other papers, two of which are essentially the same paper. The author also has additional papers claiming that Vitamin D helps prevent COVID mortality using a "ecological integrative approach." His papers also all seem to be lacking concrete meta-analysis and discussion of other approaches and clinical data.

Seems... like a quack.

[Supermancho]

Since the pandemic, there was certainly noise about Vitamin D deficiency and COVID-19 death correlation that the NIH decried as unsubstantiated. Fair enough. Since then, quite a bit of data has been collected.

There are a few hundred PHDs^1 that agree that Vitamin D deficiency increases COVID 19 mortality (nowhere is prevention mentioned) in the US, with no EU overlap that I could see from casual review.

Maybe I'm taking sides here, but I think the data is supported, even if the NIH papers are flawed. Funding what many people assume to be a null hypothesis, is not popular so there may never be research that is convincing, for most.

^1 The signatories are not a comprehensive list, but one list among others: https://www.onedaymd.com/2020/12/vitamin-D-COVID19.html

[seec]

It's probably just a confounding variable.

Having more Vitamin D probably means that you are getting more outside activity and/or have a better diet. Both things have a protective effect against things like Covid in the way of better cardio and immune system.

So, I would say that the link is very weak at best and probably not related to vitamin D directly.

[criley2]

I had ChatGPT o3 judge the paper, interesting results https://chatgpt.com/s/t_68876055374c81918960920665a4c87b

"The Big Vitamin D Mistake is a concise advocacy editorial, not a definitive study. Its central thesis—that we all need ~10× more vitamin D than current RDAs—is not supported by subsequent large randomized trials or by regulatory reviews. Use it, if at all, as a conversation starter about DRI methodology, not as a basis for clinical dosing."

[its-summertime]

Do you have a link to said COVID paper? And which two papers did you consider the same?

[gmane]

Here you go: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34079693/

Edit: You can also click on his name in the original post (or the link above) and see all the papers in pubmed authored by him.

Edit 2: These two papers:

Veugelers PJ, Ekwaru JP. A statistical error in the estimation of the recommended dietary allowance for vitamin D. Nutrients. 2014;6(10):4472–4475. - PMC - PubMed Veugelers PJ, Ekwaru JP. A statistical error in the estimation of the recommended dietary allowance for vitamin D. Nutrients. 2014;6(10):4472–4475. - PMC - PubMed

and

Heaney R, Garland C, Baggerly C, French C, Gorham E. Letter to Veugelers, P.J. and Ekwaru, J.P., A statistical error in the estimation of the recommended dietary allowance for vitamin D. Nutrients 2014, 6, 4472-4475; doi:10.3390/nu6104472. Nutrients. 2015;7(3):1688–1690. - PMC - PubMed