Even Dr. Fauci Takes Vitamin D – New Study Points to Strong Correlation Between Vitamin D Levels and Covid-19 Outcomes

Photo: Wikimedia Commons

By Steven Hoffman

Dr. Anthony Fauci, M.D., Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases at the National Institutes of Health, is one of the most trusted experts in the U.S. regarding the Covid-19 pandemic. So, when he recommends taking dietary supplements to boost immunity and lessen susceptibility to Covid-19 infection, people listen. 

On a recent Instagram Live interview with host and actor Jennifer Garner, Fauci suggested taking vitamin D and vitamin C, supplements he said he took himself, reported CNBC. (Garner also is co-founder with industry veteran John Foraker of organic baby food company Once Upon a Farm). 

“If you’re deficient in vitamin D, that does have an impact on your susceptibility to infection. I would not mind recommending, and I do it myself, taking vitamin D supplements, he told Garner during the livecast. “The other vitamin that people take is vitamin C because it’s a good antioxidant, so if people want to take a gram or so of vitamin C, that would be fine.”

A recent study published in JAMA Network found that people with untreated vitamin D deficiency were nearly twice as likely to test positive for the Covid-19 coronavirus compared to individuals with sufficient vitamin D levels. In addition, in a retrospective study of patients tested for Covid-19, researchers at the University of Chicago Medicine found an association between vitamin D deficiency and the likelihood of becoming infected with the coronavirus.

Past research also has shown that deficient levels of vitamin D are linked to more severe cases of Covid-19 and higher likelihood of death, reported Business Insider. New Hope Network also reported on a number of recent studies conducted in the U.S. and throughout the world demonstrating a correlation between vitamin D levels and Covid-19 outcomes.

In Spain, results of a recent clinical trial with vitamin D study were so startling that, while the sample size was small, the results were so “dramatic that they are statistically significant,” wrote one scientist in BMJ in response to the research.

In the Spanish study, researchers randomly allocated 76 confirmed cases of Covid-19 into those that received either oral calcifediol (25-hydroxyvitamin D) (50 patients) or no-calcifediol control (26 patients) on the day of hospital submission. Oral calcifediol was given at high does on the first day and then on the third and seventh day, and weekly until discharge or admission to the intensive care unit (ICU). All patients also received the best available standard care at the time, the study noted.

Medium reported that results of the clinical study revealed that 13 out of 26 patients, or 50%, in the control group were admitted to the ICU, and two died. In the vitamin D group, only one out of 50, or 2%, required admission to ICU, and none died.

According to Medium, the results of the clinical trial from Spain provide some of the strongest evidence to date that vitamin D therapy could work for Covid-19. The results also support prior research that found that low vitamin D levels in the blood are an independent risk factor for severe Covid-19.

In addition to taking his daily dietary supplements, Dr. Fauci recommends masks, social distancing and handwashing as the best practices for keeping yourself and others safe.