COVID-19 more frequent and deadly for those with dark skins (high risk of low vitamin D)
Mortality and Virus and Dark Skin studies
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Virus and Dark Skin - many studies pages
The racial impacts of COVID-19 Embrace Race (US focus, constantly updated)
- Asian Americans, Black Americans, Latinx/Hispanic Americans, Tribal Nations, Immigrants and Refugees
American Indians have shocking COVID-19 death rates - Brookings Feb 2021
COVID-19, dark skin, pregnancy - Dr. Grimes, etc. - May 2021
~10X higher COVID-19 risk if Shift worker+ Health-Care worker + Dark Skin
Unraveling the roles of vitamin D status and melanin during COVID-19 (Review) Jan 11
Healthcare workers at higher risk of COVID-19 if low vitamin D, especially if dark skin – Dec 2020
COVID-19 was killing dark-skinned doctors, then they got a Vitamin D recommendation
Take 100,000 IU of VItamin D

Coronavirus kills far more Hispanic and Black children than White youths, CDC study finds WP Sept 15
- More than 75 % of children dying from covid-19 are minorities
COVID-19 hard on nursing homes, blacks, and especially blacks in nursing homes WP Sept 9
- "Homes where at least 7 in 10 residents were Black saw a death rate that was about 40 percent higher than homes with majority-White populations"
COVID-19 increased 3.5 X if Ultra-Orthodox (cloth) Sept, 2020 preprint in VitaminDWiki
Children of color in the US being slammed by COVID-19 NYT Sept 1
70% of children's deaths, 76% of child hospitalizations
Increased Risks: parents not telecommute, multigenerational households
Does not mention: dark skin = lower vitamin D
COVID-19’s Toll on People of Color (in US) is Worse Than We Knew Aug 21

Excess deaths = deaths beyond that typical for the time period
Has graphs of excess death for each state
- Dark skin + HIV ==> increased COVID-19 Aug 11 NEJM - tiny portion of the table

Note: Vitamin D helps HIV: HIV patients helped by monthly 120,000 IU of Vitamin D – RCT Oct 2017
Also: Low vitamin D with HIV increases risk of infections – TB by 3.5X, CMV by 10.1X – Aug 2020
- Vitamin D deficiency in African Americans is associated with a high risk of severe disease and mortality by SARS-CoV-2 Aug 13 FREE PDF - peer reviewed, concerning hypertension

Note: Children hospitialized far less( 8/100,000) than adults (165/100,000)
Report for mid-Feb thru mid-April does not include the word VITAMIN
About 10X higher excess mortality than white-skinned Swedes - for those age 65+
"In North Carolina, Latinos make up 10% of the population, but 46 % of infections."


Horizontal axis =medium income of census tract $50k ==> $250K. Vertical access scale varies with a health problem
US Deaths per 100,000

"If they had died of COVID-19 at the same rate as White Americans, about 13,000 Black Americans, 1,300 Latino Americans and 300 Asian Americans would still be alive"
"In New Mexico, the Indigenous death rate is 8 times as high as the White mortality rate. In Arizona, it is more than 5 times the rate for all other groups."
- BAME COVID-19 DEATHS – What do we know? Rapid Data & Evidence Review UK Evidence-Based Medicine May 5
Excellent 46-page review has 46 references - many of which are on this page
Low Vitamin D is one of many possible risk factors - but no proof yet ( many intervention clinical trials are underway )
Scores of charts and tables - such as the following

The word VITAMIN does not occur once in the free PDF
Note: The study appears to be unaware of increased black vs whites dying at home.

They did not find any association with home quality, home size, home location, etc

Blacks/African Americans are 5 Times More Likely to Develop COVID-19 - NYC Zip codes preprint May 19
What Experts Say About Narrowing COVID-19 Racial Disparities May 19 1 hour Zoom video discussion
Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Population Level Covid-19 Mortality preprint May 11
3.6X higher risk of death for blacks in US - only 28 states had racial information
blacks made up 50% of the first 1,000 deaths, but only 30% of the population. The word VITAMIN does not occur once.
"Nearly 22% of US counties are disproportionately black and they accounted for
52% of COVID-19 diagnoses and 58% of COVID-19 deaths nationally"

Appears to ignore other dark skined people, who also have increased COVID-19 rates
Vitamin D is not mentioned. They note that 2nd generation Latinos do not have an increased COVID-19 rate.
- Filipino health careworkers are dying in New York City ProPublica May 3
"One of every four Filipinos in the New York-New Jersey area is employed in the health care industry. With at least 30 worker deaths and many more family members lost to the coronavirus, a community at the epicenter of the pandemic has been left reeling."
Does not appear to be adjusted for % of blacks in each region
"Before he transitioned, holistic health expert, Dr. Llaila Afrika has continually pointed out, that Vitamin D deficiency contributes to a number of African American health problems, including cancer, diabetes, and heart disease"
"You go back and look at all of the disease categories, and sure enough, you’re twice as high in all of them, because you’re trying to be healthy by another race’s melanin value.”
He is aware that blacks are hit by and die from COVID-19 more than whites but states that "“THIS IS NOT A CURE FOR COVID-19."
"... I think that if America, this entire nation, was keeping [a] recording of who was dying and if they were low in vitamin D or deficient in different areas, we would know it—but apparently no one is keeping a record, which is insane to me.”
All 5 of the studies which found strong association between low D and high COVID-19 are outside of the US
Note most of the ICUs were in Atlanta and Atlanta is 57% black, so COVID 1.46 X higher risk if black than all other races

California adults more likely to die: Blacks 2.4X, Latinos 1.5X NYT April 28 ages 18 to 49
High-income Black county also has high COVID-19 problems Washington Post April 27
"...higher rates of diabetes and heart disease than others in the region
Note: seniors produce much less vitamin D from the sun. Likewise, people with dark skins also produce much less.
Suspect that seniors with dark skins produce about 10X less vitamin D from the sun than 20-year-old whites.

Increased COVID-19 vs % of blacks in the US states Mother Jones April 17
COVID-19 Incidence

COVID-19 Fatalities

Biggest new COVID-19 outbreak: dark skin + no lockdown + take IBProfin daily for sore muscles NY Times April 15
- Pork processing Plant in South Dakota : 640 tested positive so far
Why COVID-19 may be disproportionately killing African Americans - preprint April 8
- "One Sentence Summary: African American overrepresentation among COVID-19 deaths increases with lower irradiance, where race is more predictive of COVID-19 infection and mortality than median income"
37 detained immigrant minors tested positive for COVID-19 in Chicago ProPublica April 15
4 reasons coronavirus is hitting black communities so hard Washington Post April 10
Fails to mention that dark skinned people have lower levels of vitamin D and worse health and higher death rate around the world, not just in A-A
When Vitamin D levels of A-A are raised to that of whites the health disparities vanish
Virus Is Twice as Deadly for Black and Latino People Than Whites in N.Y.C. NYT April 8
Both have low levels of Vitamin D
- deaths per 100,000 so far: Hispanic 23, black 20, white 10, Asian 8. - numbers are age-adjusted
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Probably more than just low vitamin D: social distance, lack of good health care facilities, lack of running water, etc.
Native Americans are 44% of the cases in NM but are 11% of the population NYT April 24
VitaminDWiki is offering a reward of $1,000 to the first person who gets a Navajo hospital to use off the shelf vitamin D emulsion
Approximately 10 doses per bottle - which can be taken topically and inside the cheek. contact hlahore@gmail.com
Note: Topical Vitamin D gets into the body in about 3 hours, much faster than oral vitamin D
Note: Indian reservations are apparently not under US medical restrictions
Note: Native Americans vs whites TB 6X more, Diabetes 5X more, Spanish Flu deaths 4X more - all of which are associated with low Vitamin D
Note: their GoFundMe raised $$3,821,060 as of May 16
African Americans are getting and dying of COVID-19 at an alarming Rate Propublica April 3
20% of the county is Black. but 50% of those getting COVID-19 and 87% of dying of it are Black
Should not be a surprise, those with dark skins have lower vitamin D levels, unless they supplement
Note many other groups are likewise athigh risk of being Vitamin D deficient and probably at high risk of COVID-19
- Additional high-risk groups include: Elderly (especially those in senior homes), obese, women a few months before or after giving birth, concealing clothes, long distance truckers, those having little access to the sun, etc.
See also in VitaminDWiki Indications of increase COVID-19 problems if dark skin in the UK- April 3 2020
Black Americans Face Alarming Rates of Coronavirus Infection in Some States NYT April 7
Despite being less than 1% of Stockholm's population, Somali deaths account for 40% of ALL reported COVID-19 deaths HS Today April 4
- Dark Skin + concealing clothes + Northern latitude ==> among the lowest levels of vitamin D on the planet, Have very poor health VitaminDWiki
MISSISSIPPI (with many Blacks) IHAS THE HIGHEST RATE OF CORONAVIRUS HOSPITALIZATIONS IN THE US NewsWeek April 2
- "31 percent, with 332 people hospitalized out of 1,073 infections. " NY has 22%
Videos for Blacks
Rollin Martin on COVID-19 for blacks - includes Black doctors, Tyler Perry, etc April 30, 2020
- End of the 16 minute video has a video list of many Blacks who are interested.
Dr. Kelechi Egwim (Chemical Engineer) July 2012
VitaminDWiki Items in both categories Dark Skin and Virus
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See also VitaminDWiki
African American Health Disparities are associated with low Vitamin D - Grant Feb 2021
Lack of vitamin D closely associated with black health disparities – Nov 2010
10 health problems associated with Dark Skin (low vitamin D)
Items in both categories Dark Skin and Europe are listed here:
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Short URL to this page VitaminDWiki.com/BlackCOVID



