COVID-19 was killing dark-skinned doctors, then they got a Vitamin D recommendation

All 14 of the UK doctors who died of COVID-19 had dark skins The Guardian April 18

Then they got the letter on this page recommending that they take 100,000 IU of VItamin D

Note:

• BAPIO = British Association of Physicians of Indian Origin
• BAME = Black, Asian and minority ethnic, a UK demographic
  • Do not know if the doctors embraced the Vitamin D recommendation

Letter sent April 27, 2020   PDF
The following is the text in the letter

Recommendation on Vit D supplements to boost Immunity against COVID-19

Dear BAPIO member,
Both Professor David Anderson and I are accredited endocrinologists. We are extremely concerned at the apparent lack of effective protection of medical, nursing and other health care workers (HCW) against coronavirus. We also have major worries about the disproportionate coronavirus mortality among BAME HCWs. We believe that Vitamin D3 deficiency is a major risk factor for severe coronavirus infection, for which there is accumulating evidence.

People born with darker skin receive less UV light in the deeper layers where D3 is made and so, are prone to more severe D-deficiency at the end of winter in northern latitudes than their fairerskinned counterparts.

Prof David Anderson is retired, lives in Italy, and has access to vials of D3, 2.5 mg (100,000 IU) which is appropriate amount of Vitamin D3 as a booster dose for Vit D deficient individual. The contents of one vial taken by mouth should raise levels of 25(OH)D3 for 2 to 3 months, to the minimum that the immune system needs to provide the first line of defence against this new virus. It will not prevent infection itself, but by providing front-line resistance, it is likely to reduce it to the level of a severe cold. In the presence of inadequate levels of 25(OH)D3 the virus can get past this vitamin D-dependent first line of defence and cause severe lung disease that carries a high risk of death.

We recommend that ideally the BAME population, especially front-line staff, should get their Vitamin D3 levels checked and get appropriate replacement as required. In the absence of the test and if one is not on regular Vit D3 supplement, a booster dose of Vit D3 100,000 units has been suggested.

Since in UK, 100,000 I.U. preparation is prescription only, one can get it directly from Prof Anderson. Alternative is a UK preparation, HUXD3 20,000 IU which can be bought over the counter. If not available locally, Milton Pharmacy, Weston super Mare would be happy to supply a pack of 10 tablets at cost price of £2. We advise that, if you are not already taking Vit D supplementation, you can take 100,000 IU. This is safe ⑴ and will address Vitamin D deficiency quickly.

With best wishes for your personal safety in this difficult time, Prof Parag Singhal, Consultant Endocrinologist Weston General Hospital and Prof David C Anderson (former Professor of Medicine, University of Manchester and the Chinese University of Hong Kong)

PS: The above advice is our joint recommendation and not BAPIO Policy
(1) LARGE, SINGLE-DOSE, ORAL VITAMIN D SUPPLEMENTATION IN ADULT POPULATIONS: A SYSTEMATIC REVIEW
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4128480/
In VitaminDWiki as Large single dose of more than 300,000 IU of vitamin D works well for 3 months – Review Nov 2013

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COVID-19 more frequent and deadly for those with dark skins (high risk of low vitamin D) follows

!!!! Mortality and Virus and Dark Skin studies

Virus and Dark Skin in VitaminDWiki 20 pages

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• 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
• COVID-19 was the third-leading cause of death in the US, especially in those with dark skins - April 1, 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
  • 
• Dark-skinned children hospitalzed for COVID more than white-skinned: 8X Hispanic, 5x Black CDC Aug 7
  • Note: Children hospitialized far less( 8/100,000) than adults (165/100,000)
• CDC: Covid-19 death toll is twice as high among people of color under age 65 as for white Americans WP July 10
  • Report for mid-Feb thru mid-April does not include the word VITAMIN
• Pregnant women in Philadelphia who were Black or Hispanic were 5X more likely to have COVID-19 antibodies than whites NYT July 10
• Far more COVID-19 cases for dark-skinned people at every age NYT July 5
• 
• Majority of people in Sweden dying during COVID-19 had dark skins
  • About 10X higher excess mortality than white-skinned Swedes - for those age 65+
• Poll: Do you personally know of someone who has died of COVID-19: Blacks 31%, Whites 9% WP June 26
• US counties >25% Latino have 32% of new COVID-19 cases NYT June 26
  • "In North Carolina, Latinos make up 10% of the population, but 46 % of infections."
  • 
• UK ministers order urgent vitamin D coronavirus review The Guardian June 17
• Census tracts with low income and/or blacks have diseases which greatly increase likelyhood COVID-19 NYT June 2

• Horizontal axis =medium income of census tract $50k ==> $250K. Vertical access scale varies with a health problem
• THE COLOR OF CORONAVIRUS: COVID-19 DEATHS BY RACE AND ETHNICITY IN THE U.S. May 27
  • 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
  • 
• Brazillians with darker skins are 2X more likely to die of COVID-19 CNN May 24
• Those with dark skins were with COVID-19 were 2.7 X more likely to land in hospitals than Whites or Hispanics in N, Calif NYT May 23 peer-reviewed
  • 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.
• UK+ dark skin = 4.2 X more likely to get COVID-19 - official govt report March to April 10 May 7
• How the coronavirus exposed health disparities in communities of color Wash Post May 22
  • 
• US nursing homes with >25% dark-skinned residents were 2X more likely to catch COVID-19 NYT May 21
  • 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
• Out of the first 100 COVID-19 death in Chicago, 70 of them were blacks ProPublica May 9
  • blacks made up 50% of the first 1,000 deaths, but only 30% of the population. The word VITAMIN does not occur once.
• Assessing Differential Impacts of COVID-19 on Black Communities preprint May 8
  • "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
• Latinos are 2X to 3X more likely to get COVID-19 than whites NYT May 7
  • 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."
• 
• Covid-19 Is Killing Black People Unequally (vitamin D is NOT mentioned) Wired May 2
• Race, Socioeconomic Deprivation, and Hospitalization for COVID-19 in English participants of a National Biobank preprint May 2 final PDF May 17
• 
  • Does not appear to be adjusted for % of blacks in each region
• African Americans High COVID-19 Mortality Rates: Is This Due To A Lack Of Vitamin D? AFRO.com April 29
  • "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.”
• Tyler Perry Urges Black People To Increase Their Vitamin D During The Pandemic Essence April 29
  • 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
• More than 80% of hospitalized COVID-19 patients in Georgia last month were black, CDC study finds CBS April 30
  • 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
• COVID-19 is harder for those with dark skins - perhaps due to low vitamin D – April 24, 2020 letter to BMJ
• All 14 of the UK doctors who died of COVID-19 had dark skins The Guardian April 18
  • 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
• Navajos (having dark skins and low vitamin D) have a 16X higher COVID-19 death rate than whites in the same state NYT April 9
  • 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 at 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 at high 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

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VitaminDWiki Items in both categories Dark Skin and Virus

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See also VitaminDWiki

• Overview Dark Skin and Vitamin D
• 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:

Short URL to this page VitaminDWiki.com/BlackCOVID