curable Covid thanks to vitamin D?

In recent weeks, many media have relayed that vitamin D was useful in avoiding mortality linked to Covid-19. A study led by the University Hospital of Angers (Maine-et-Loire) between April and December 2020 is the source of this information. 254 patients over the age of 65, suffering from Covid, were divided into two groups of the same size. Within three days of testing positive, one group received a standard dose of vitamin D and the other group a higher dose. After 14 days, mortality is lower in the group that received a larger dose of vitamin D. Eight died, compared to 14 in the other group.

However, the study has methodological limitations. Patients in the group that received less vitamin D were older. The median age of this group was 89 years, against 87 years for the one with the higher dose. The group with the highest mortality also included 13 members with cancer, against 4 for the other. Finally, mortality becomes almost identical between the two groups, 28 days after the start of the test, which would prove a decrease in the effectiveness of vitamin D over time. “Not only does this study have biases (…) but above all it does not demonstrate anything“, says Mathieu Malimard, head of the pharmacology department of the Bordeaux University Hospital (Gironde).