British Study Confirms Low Vitamin D Link in Covid19 Deaths
A new study has found an association between low average levels of vitamin D and high numbers of COVID-19 cases and mortality rates across 20 European countries.
The research, led by Dr Lee Smith of Anglia Ruskin University (ARU) and Mr Petre Cristian Ilie, lead urologist of Queen Elizabeth Hospital King’s Lynn NHS Foundation Trust, is published in the journal Aging Clinical and Experimental Research.
Previous observational studies have reported an association between low levels of vitamin D and susceptibility to acute respiratory tract infections. Vitamin D modulates the response of white blood cells, preventing them from releasing too many inflammatory cytokines. The COVID-19 virus is known to cause an excess of pro-inflammatory cytokines.
Italy and Spain have both experienced high COVID-19 mortality rates, and the new study shows that both countries have lower average vitamin D levels than most northern European countries. This is partly because people in southern Europe, particularly the elderly, avoid strong sun, while skin pigmentation also reduces natural vitamin D synthesis.
The highest average levels of vitamin D are found in northern Europe, due to the consumption of cod liver oil and vitamin D supplements, and possibly less sun avoidance. Scandinavian nations are among the countries with the lowest number of COVID-19 cases and mortality rates per head of population in Europe.
Dr Lee Smith, Reader in Physical Activity and Public Health at Anglia Ruskin University, said: “We found a significant crude relationship between average vitamin D levels and the number COVID-19 cases, and particularly COVID-19 mortality rates, per head of population across the 20 European countries.
“Vitamin D has been shown to protect against acute respiratory infections, and older adults, the group most deficient in vitamin D, are also the ones most seriously affected by COVID-19.
“A previous study found that 75% of people in institutions, such as hospitals and care homes, were severely deficient in vitamin D. We suggest it would be advisable to perform dedicated studies looking at vitamin D levels in COVID-19 patients with different degrees of disease severity.”
Mr Petre Cristian Ilie, lead urologist of Queen Elizabeth Hospital King’s Lynn NHS Foundation Trust, said: “Our study does have limitations however, not least because the number of cases in each country is affected by the number of tests performed, as well as the different measures taken by each country to prevent the spread of infection. Finally, and importantly, one must remember correlation does not necessarily mean causation.”
Story Source:
Materials provided by Anglia Ruskin University. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.
Journal Reference:
- Petre Cristian Ilie, Simina Stefanescu, Lee Smith. The role of vitamin D in the prevention of coronavirus disease 2019 infection and mortality. Aging Clinical and Experimental Research, 2020; DOI: 10.1007/s40520-020-01570-8
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Dean Michael Jackson
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It would be nice if Principia Scientific, which defends the Scientific Method, provided readers with (1) the journals where COVID-19 was actually purified – identified; and (2) a picture of the virus:
“We have also contacted Dr Charles Calisher, who is a seasoned virologist. In 2001, Science published an “impassioned plea…to the younger generation” from several veteran virologists, among them Calisher, saying that:
[modern virus detection methods like] sleek polymerase chain reaction […] tell little or nothing about how a virus multiplies, which animals carry it, [or] how it makes people sick. [It is] like trying to say whether somebody has bad breath by looking at his fingerprint.”[3]
And that’s why we asked Dr Calisher whether he knows one single paper in which SARS-CoV-2 has been isolated and finally really purified. His answer:
I know of no such a publication. I have kept an eye out for one.
This actually means that one cannot conclude that the RNA gene sequences, which the scientists took from the tissue samples prepared in the mentioned in vitro trials and for which the PCR tests are finally being “calibrated,” belong to a specific virus — in this case SARS-CoV-2.”
https://off-guardian.org/2020/06/27/covid19-pcr-tests-are-scientifically-meaningless/?fbclid=IwAR3G6Fuq8C-8XW7szL43scbKOYFx78irq52A6ZQCRdZmPMWiHTqD_2jv4Zo#4
Which is why there are no electron microscope pictures of the fake COVID-19 virus(!)…
https://www.poynter.org/reporting-editing/2020/youve-probably-seen-this-image-of-the-coronavirus-everywhere-what-is-it-exactly/
At my blog, read the articles…
‘House of Cards: The Collapse of the ‘Collapse’ of the USSR’
‘Playing Hide And Seek In Yugoslavia’
Then read the article, ‘The Marxist Co-Option Of History And The Use Of The Scissors Strategy To Manipulate History Towards The Goal Of Marxist Liberation’
Solution
The West will form new political parties where candidates are vetted for Marxist ideology/blackmail, the use of the polygraph to be an important tool for such vetting. Then the West can finally liberate the globe of vanguard Communism.
My blog’s link is located at my Disqus home page.
https://djdnotice.blogspot.com/2018/09/d-notice-articles-article-55-7418.html
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John O'Sullivan
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Dean, if you follow our posts regularly you will see that we have been regularly demanding those in authority make publicly available any and all such proof of a ‘gold standard’ measure for the existence of the COVID19 ‘unicorn’ virus. if they cannot show it, then empirical science cannot accept it. As we have shown with man-made global warming, COVID19, exists only in computer models, not the real world.
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Dean Michael Jackson
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Understood.
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Alan Bland
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I started visiting the principia-scientific website to obtain material on the AGW controversy, as I am what you might call a sceptic (or a denialist as the alarmists prefer). But I cannot believe the site is publishing these articles claiming the Covid-19 virus doesn’t really exist when more than 33 million people worldwide have contracted it and at least a million have died from it. My own wife almost died from it too. Presumably your contributors think it’s really caused by mass hysteria?
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Herb Rose
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Hi Alan,
I hope your wife is well.
PSI is a cite where people are able to express their ideas even though they conflict with accepted beliefs. By allowing everyone to voice their opinions it allows readers to not only experience novel ideas but to re-examine their own beliefs and determine their validity based on evidence and reason.
There are those who do not believe that diseases are caused by pathogens. I do not accept their beliefs but I like to examine them to better understand why I hold my beliefs.
In my opinion the COVID-19 was man made virus constructed in China where it was released by accident.The virus was initially deadly but like many things made in China it has quickly came apart and is mutating into a more benign virus. The initial response was justified because of the uncertainty surrounding the virus and the threat it posed but as time has passed it has become clear that the measures taken are no longer justified by the threat.
The real story of the disease is how those in power have used the disease to both increase increase their control and wealth at the expense of everyone else. They use people’s fear to accomplish these goals just as Bush used the 9/11 attack to take away our freedoms, spy on us, and waste huge amounts of money on a temporary threat. They enact measures, like masks, closing businesses, and lock downs that have nothing to do with our health but are about their control and increasing it even as the threat , like the terrorist threat, fades. The most serious consequences will not come from the disease, which we have survived in previous outbreaks, but the response to the disease.
Herb
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geran
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Alan, here’s my “two cents”:
Covid-19 is what is commonly known as a “flu”. Indications are that it is a weak flu. A healthy immune system can easily handle it, with just the normal precautions.
The hoax starts with the fake reporting of cases and deaths. A person who died in a motorcycle accident was reported as a Covid death. A person was hit by lightning, fell off a roof, died instantly and was reported as a Covid death. The tests yield a large percentage of false positives. The promoters then claim the ones with false positives are “asymptotic”, to protect the hoax.
It is not about protecting us, it is about controlling us. Why hide the fact that HCQ helps, for example?
Just like with the AGW hoax, the average person is unsure of the science and must rely on the “experts”. Hopefully, if we get out of this mess, people will learn not to believe everything that emerges from “Institutionalized Pseudoscience”.
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