Mass vaccination is the only sustainable way out of this pandemic and back into personal well-being and economic health for the country--and it is working! We protect ourselves and others at the same time by getting vaccinated. “I believe that ethically everyone should take the vaccine,” the Pope has said. “It is an ethical choice because you are gambling with your health, with your life, but you are also gambling with the lives of others” (https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-pope/pope-francis-to-have-covid-19-vaccine-says-it-is-the-ethical-choice-for-all-idUSKBN29E0LY). “The devil is taking advantage of the crisis to sow distrust, desperation and discord,” the Pope said (https://nypost.com/2021/03/28/pope-francis-satan-is-taking-advantage-of-covid-19-pandemic/).
Setting an example, our public health experts and all current and past living presidents have gotten vaccinated. It is inconceivable that any others are better informed about the safety and efficacy of the vaccines than our country's top medical experts and political leaders.
Data now coming in show that COVID-19 vaccination is highly effective in preventing (a) COVID-19 disease, (b) SARS-CoV-2 infection, and (c) transmission of the virus to others. No data yet exist to show that ANY other medical treatment can do any of these things except possibly limit the severity of disease once it develops.
To date, there are no reported studies showing that vitamin D supplementation protects against infection by SARS-CoV-2. Instead, some small, methodologically weak studies have suggested that low vitamin D levels correlate with severity of COVID-19 disease (2,3,4,5,7). However, there are no large, properly designed studies to rule out confounding factors (1,9,10,12,15,16). Correlation does not prove causation (13). Furthermore, other studies have found no relationship (6,8,12,14). Often only measured at the time of hospital admission, low vitamin D could even be a consequence of COVID-19 (1,7,13,17).
Various treatments for symptomatic COVID-19 have shown various degrees of benefit (in some cases no benefit), but nothing on Earth rivals vaccination as a means to sustainably PREVENT infection, transmission, disease, long-term sequelae, and loss of life. The longer it takes to get everyone vaccinated, the more opportunities for mutations and the more entrenched the virus will become. If you are already vaccinated, thank you! If not, step up!
REFERENCES (all very recent)
1. Mohammad Rizki Akbar,1,*Arief Wibowo,1Raymond Pranata,1,2 and Budi Setiabudiawan3. Low Serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D (Vitamin D) Level Is Associated With Susceptibility to COVID-19, Severity, and Mortality: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis. Front Nutr. 2021; 8: 660420.
Published online 2021 Mar 29. doi: 10.3389/fnut.2021.660420
2. Mohammad Shah Alam,a,⁎ Daniel M. Czajkowsky,bMd. Aminul Islam,c and Md. Ataur Rahmand. The role of vitamin D in reducing SARS-CoV-2 infection: An update. Int Immunopharmacol. 2021 Aug; 97: 107686.
3. Nasser M Al-Daghri 1 , Osama E Amer 2 , Naif H Alotaibi 3 , Dara A Aldisi 4 , Mushira A Enani 5 , Eman Sheshah 6 , Naji J Aljohani 2 7 , Naemah Alshingetti 8 , Suliman Y Alomar 9 , Hanan Alfawaz 10 , Syed D Hussain 2 , Abdullah M Alnaami 2 , Shaun Sabico 2 . Vitamin D status of Arab Gulf residents screened for SARS-CoV-2 and its association with COVID-19 infection: a multi-centre case-control study. J Transl Med 2021 Apr 26;19(1):166.
doi: 10.1186/s12967-021-02838-x.
4. Mikhail V Bychinin 1 , Tatiana V Klypa 1 , Irina A Mandel 1 2 , Sergey A Andreichenko 1 , Vladimir P Baklaushev 1 , Gaukhar M Yusubalieva 1 , Nadezhda A Kolyshkina 1 , Aleksandr V Troitsky 1 . Low Circulating Vitamin D in Intensive Care Unit-Admitted COVID-19 Patients as a Predictor of Negative Outcomes. J Nutr 2021 May 12;nxab107.
doi: 10.1093/jn/nxab107. Online ahead of print.
5. Salvatore Corrao,1,2,*Raffaella Mallaci Bocchio,2Marika Lo Monaco,2Giuseppe Natoli,2Attilio Cavezzi,3Emidio Troiani,4 and Christiano Argano2
Does Evidence Exist to Blunt Inflammatory Response by Nutraceutical Supplementation during COVID-19 Pandemic? An Overview of Systematic Reviews of Vitamin D, Vitamin C, Melatonin, and Zinc. Nutrients. 2021 Apr; 13(4): 1261.
Published online 2021 Apr 12. doi: 10.3390/nu13041261
6. Alireza Davoudi 1 , Narges Najafi 1 , Mohsen Aarabi 2 , Atefeh Tayebi 1 , Roja Nikaeen 3 , Hamideh Izadyar 1 , Zahra Salar 4 , Leila Delavarian 1 , Narges Vaseghi 5 , Zahra Daftarian 1 , Fatemeh Ahangarkani 6 Lack of association between vitamin D insufficiency and clinical outcomes of patients with COVID-19 infection. BMC Infect Dis 2021 May 18;21(1):450.
doi: 10.1186/s12879-021-06168-7.
7. Moustapha Dramé 1 2 , Cécilia Cofais 3 , Maxime Hentzien 4 , Emeline Proye 5 , Pécory Souleymane Coulibaly 5 , David Demoustier-Tampère 5 , Marc-Henri Destailleur 5 , Maxime Lotin 5 , Eléonore Cantagrit 5 , Agnès Cebille 5 , Anne Desprez 5 , Fanny Blondiau 5 , Lukshe Kanagaratnam 6 , Lidvine Godaert 5 . Relation between Vitamin D and COVID-19 in Aged People: A Systematic Review. Nutrients 2021 Apr 17;13(4):1339.
doi: 10.3390/nu13041339.
8. Mehrdad Haghighi 1 , Seyed Shayan Ebadi 2 , Hussein Soleimantabar 3 , Atefe Shadkam 3 , Seyed Alireza Ebadi 4 , Hasan Afzali 5 . Association between vitamin D level and prognostic factors among patients infected with SARS-CoV-2. Horm Mol Biol Clin Investig 2021 May 19.
doi: 10.1515/hmbci-2021-0008. Online ahead of print.
9. Aysha Habib Khan,1Noreen Nasir,2Nosheen Nasir,2 Quratulain Maha,3 and Rehana Rehman4. Vitamin D and COVID-19: is there a role? J Diabetes Metab Disord. 2021 Mar 29 : 1–8.
doi: 10.1007/s40200-021-00775-6 [Epub ahead of print]
10. Ronan Lordan 1 , Halie M Rando 2 3 4 , COVID-19 Review Consortium; Casey S Greene 5 3 4 6 . Dietary Supplements and Nutraceuticals under Investigation for COVID-19 Prevention and Treatment. mSystems 2021 May 4;6(3):e00122-21. doi: 10.1128/mSystems.00122-21.
11. Maryam Nasiri 1 , Javad Khodadadi 2 , Sedigheh Molaei 3
Does vitamin D serum level affect prognosis of COVID-19 patients? Int J Infect Dis 2021 Apr 30;S1201-9712(21)00395-7. doi: 10.1016/j.ijid.2021.04.083. Online ahead of print.
12. Nathan Ushmantha Pinnawala,#Tinna Osk Thrastardottir,# and Constantina Constantinou#. Keeping a Balance During the Pandemic: a Narrative Review on the Important Role of Micronutrients in Preventing Infection and Reducing Complications of COVID-19. Curr Nutr Rep. 2021 May 5 : 1–11.
13. Teodoro J Oscanoa 1 2 , José Amado 3 4 , Xavier Vidal 5 , Eamon Laird 6 , Rawia A Ghashut 7 , Roman Romero-Ortuno 8 9 . The relationship between the severity and mortality of SARS-CoV-2 infection and 25-hydroxyvitamin D concentration - a metaanalysis. Adv Respir Med 2021;89(2):145-157. doi: 10.5603/ARM.a2021.0037.
14. Wessam Osman 1 , Fatma Al Fahdi 1 , Issa Al Salmi 2 , Huda Al Khalili 3 , Antara Gokhale 3 , Faryal Khamis 4 . Serum Calcium and Vitamin D levels: Correlation with severity of COVID-19 in hospitalized patients in Royal Hospital, Oman. Int J Infect Dis 2021 Apr 20;107:153-163.
doi: 10.1016/j.ijid.2021.04.050. Online ahead of print.
15. Elisabet Rothenberg. Coronavirus Disease 19 from the Perspective of Ageing with Focus on Nutritional Status and Nutrition Management—A Narrative Review. Nutrients. 2021 Apr; 13(4): 1294. Published online 2021 Apr 14. doi: 10.3390/nu13041294
16. Betsy Szeto 1 , Lena Fan, Thomas L Nickolas. Coronavirus disease 2019, vitamin D and kidney function. Curr Opin Nephrol Hypertens 2021 May 11.
doi: 10.1097/MNH.0000000000000723. Online ahead of print.
17. Tom D. Thacher, MD∗. Vitamin D and COVID-19. Mayo Clin Proc. 2021 Apr; 96(4): 838–840.
Published online 2021 Feb 25. doi: 10.1016/j.mayocp.2021.02.014
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