COVID-19 linked to Vitamin D deficiency: Dr. Fauci says he takes vitamin D and C supplements to reduce his ‘susceptibility to infection;’ recommends vitamin D if you’re deficient

On March 12, we wrote an article that literally crashed our site. It was a story about MIT Biologist, Dr. Shiva Ayyadurai after he warned Americans that fear-mongering on coronavirus will go down as the biggest fraud in the history of the United States.

Dr. Shiva is an MIT scientist with 4 Ph.D. degrees and a researcher on the human immune system. At the time, he said the media did the world a disservice by exaggerating the impact of the virus. Instead, he suggested we focus more on immune health and boost our immune systems. In another article, Dr. Shiva went into greater detail to explain how coronavirus works and why building our immune system may be a good safeguard against virus. Dr. Shiva also explained that it is not the virus or pathogens that kill people but the overaction of a weakened and dysfunctional immune system. Dr. Shiva went on to explained molecular systems’ understanding of the virus and how “Vitamin D destroys for you.”

Now, six months after Dr. Shiva’s recommendations, scientists just found that vitamin D deficiency may raise the risk of getting COVID-19. In a retrospective study of patients tested for COVID-19, researchers at the University of Chicago Medicine found a link between vitamin D deficiency and the likelihood of becoming infected with the coronavirus.

It turns out that Dr. Shiva was right all along. In an Instagram Live interview on Thursday, Dr. Anthony Fauci said he is taking vitamin D and C supplements to reduce his ‘susceptibility to infection.’

Dr. Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, added that most “so-called immune-boosting supplements” actually do “nothing.” However, there are two vitamins Fauci does recommend to help keep your immune system healthy.

“If you are deficient in vitamin D, that does have an impact on your susceptibility to infection. So I would not mind recommending, and I do it myself taking vitamin D supplements,” Fauci, 79, said during an Instagram Live on Thursday, when actress Jennifer Garner asked Fauci about immune-boosting supplements. But “any of the other concoctions and herbs I would not do,” Fauci said.

Medical experts have repeatedly warned that there are no vitamins or supplements known to help prevent coronavirus, including COVID-19. However, nutrients in vitamin D may help boost your immune system and help its ability to fight the virus, if you’re deficient.

During another interview with actress Tiffany Haddish released on Sept 4., Fauci said in clinical studies most “so-called” immune-boosting supplements didn’t really help people unless they had some sort of a deficiency. If fact, a lot of these herbs “either do nothing or, if you take too much of them, they harm you,” Fauci told Haddish.

Dr. Shiva is not alone in suggesting the use of vitamin D to boost your immune system. In the research conducted at the University of Chicago Medicine, researchers found that those with an untreated deficiency in vitamin D were more likely to test positive for coronavirus.

“Vitamin D is important to the function of the immune system and vitamin D supplements have previously been shown to lower the risk of viral respiratory tract infections,” said David Meltzer, MD, Ph.D., Chief of Hospital Medicine at UChicago Medicine and lead author of the study. “Our statistical analysis suggests this may be true for the COVID-19 infection.”

The research team looked at 489 University of Chicago Medicine patients whose vitamin D level was measured within a year before being tested for COVID-19. They found that patients who had vitamin D deficiency (< 20ng/ml) that was not treated were almost twice as likely to test positive for the coronavirus compared to patients who had sufficient levels of the vitamin.