Vitamin D in the news: A call for clear public health messaging during Covid-19.

The public are increasingly reliant on the internet and media to access healthcare related information during the Covid-19 pandemic. Vitamin D is essential for musculoskeletal and immune health, with daily supplementation advised by public health bodies. Several studies assessing a possible link between vitamin D and Covid-19 severity have arrived at conflicting results and news articles have been rapidly disseminating such research to the public.

Dexamethasone treatment may mitigate adverse effects of vitamin D deficiency in hospitalized Covid-19 patients.

Aims: We have previously demonstrated that vitamin D deficiency might be associated with worse outcomes in hospitalized Covid-19 patients. The aim of our study was to explore this relationship with dexamethasone therapy.

Methods: We prospectively studied two cohorts of hospitalized Covid-19 patients between March and April and between September and December 2020 (n = 192).