Image 01 Image 03

Are the Social-Distancing Shutdowns a Contributing Factor to U.S. COVID-19 Challenges?

Are the Social-Distancing Shutdowns a Contributing Factor to U.S. COVID-19 Challenges?

Review of COVID-19 outcomes suggest a strong connection between Vitamin D and disease response. So, a better response includes fewer masks and more freedom.

In mid-March, President Donald Trump issued the official guidelines involving the closures of businesses, non-essential businesses, and all other areas where people could gather for 15-days, which had several extensions through April. This essentially created a nationwide shut-in, which may have been unwise in light of recent findings.

New research shows that it could be a significant factor that impacts people’s abilities to stave off infection with the Wuhan Coronavirus is Vitamin D.

Good levels of vitamin D, the so-called sunshine vitamin, help people to fight the coronavirus more quickly and effectively and reduce chances of hospitalization, Israeli researchers have concluded.

However, others are cautioning broad conclusions, saying other factors may be involved.

Milana Frenkel-Morgenstern of Bar Ilan University told The Times of Israel on Sunday that vitamin D is “like a steroid,” after publishing what she says is the world’s largest population-based study of its kind.

She embarked on the joint study with Leumit Health Services to probe whether there is a basis to suggestions — heard throughout the pandemic — that vitamin D may prove helpful.

Her team studied a 7,807-strong sample of Israelis who were tested for the coronavirus. It found that the average vitamin D level for people who screened negative was in the internationally-accepted “adequate” range, while the average for those who tested positive fell in the “inadequate” category.

Vitamin D levels of less than 20 nanograms per milliliter of blood are considered inadequate.

Vitamin D is synthesized in the skin after exposure to sunlight. Then it is metabolized by the liver and kidney to the metabolically active form called 1α,25-dihydroxy vitamin D. Vitamin D plays a critical role in bone formation and maintenance. It is also essential for immune system response and cardiovascular health. It is interesting to note that many of the fatalities associated with COVID-19 stem from its impact on the cardiovascular system.

This study may explain the findings that obese people among black and minority ethnic communities (BME) are at around two times higher the risk of contracting COVID-19 than white Europeans.

Previous research has shown that ethnicity can alter the association between the body mass index (BMI) and cardiometabolic health so the researchers wanted to explore whether a person’s weight could change the relative risk of COVID-19 across ethnic groups.

Emerging COVID-19 evidence has found that South Asian and black, African, or Caribbean populations are at a higher risk of becoming seriously unwell with the condition. In addition, a link with obesity has also been found.

To begin with, research had demonstrated that obesity is tied to Vitamin D deficiency.

New research adds to the evidence linking obesity with lower levels of vitamin D, and the finding could help explain why carrying extra pounds raises the risk for a wide range of diseases, researchers say.

The study suggests that people who are obese may be less able to convert vitamin D into its hormonally active form.

Researchers measured levels of vitamin D and its hormonally active form 1,25(OH)2D in almost 1,800 people being treated at a weight loss clinic in Norway.

Most of the people were overweight and 11% were considered morbidly obese, with a body mass index (BMI) of 40 or higher.

The more the study participants weighed, the lower their vitamin D levels tended to be, study researcher Zoya Lagunova, MD, of the Rikshospitalet-Radiumhospitalet Medical Center in Oslo, Norway, tells WebMD.

Another study shows that African-Americans are at the highest risk for Vitamin D deficiency.

An estimated 40% of American adults may be vitamin D deficient. For African-Americans, that number may be nearly double at 76% according to a new study by The Cooper Institute.

Previous studies have shown that African-American adults have higher rates of vitamin D deficiency and obesity, as well as lower levels of cardiorespiratory fitness when compared with other groups. Across the board, African-American adults are generally at greater risk for a number of chronic and potentially life-shortening conditions such as hypertension, stroke, insulin resistance, metabolic syndrome, type 2 diabetes, cancer, heart disease and all-cause mortality, some of which is associated with vitamin D deficiency.

Here is another element of the effects of the COVID-19 response to consider. In 2015, Sweden expanded its requirements to have Vitamin D added to various diary products, lactose-free milk products, and cooking oil.

When confronted with COVID-19 outbreaks, Sweden did not implement extensive restrictions. It allowed people to go out and live their lives while focusing on protecting the vulnerable.

Here is the graph of their daily death totals, which have not been more than 2/day on any day this week.

https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/country/sweden/

It appears that keeping people indoors and away from fresh air and sunshine has contributed to the challenges we have faced in this country, in terms of continuing outbreaks and poor outcomes. I assert that we would do better in our response if we ditched the masks and closures and opted to promote Vitamin D supplements and more freedom.

DONATE

Donations tax deductible
to the full extent allowed by law.

Comments

No action but what Dr. Fauci wants right now can be proposed as it will be immediately denounced by the MSM and any voice that promotes it on social media will be silenced.

The world in which we live at this moment in time.

    notamemberofanyorganizedpolicital in reply to Dave. | July 30, 2020 at 2:27 pm

    Of course it is making it worse.

    It is slowing the development of herd immunity, which of course is exactly what the leftist want to happen.

    Go back and review, 100% of everything the leftists have recommended and demanded have been to sow confusion and to make things worse.

    They have done it all deliberately colluding with the Communist Chinese.

    That’s my opinion and I’m sticking to it since it’s still a free country as far as We Know.

      notamemberofanyorganizedpolicital in reply to notamemberofanyorganizedpolicital. | July 30, 2020 at 2:32 pm

      I was going to add, where I live, people are not social distancing at all.

      Probably because most of those people are wearing a mask they are not worried about social distancing anymore.

      Except places such as Walmart that have half a dozen or more entrance door Nazis there you’ll see people space apart pretending they’re social distancing, but once they’re inside the store all social distancing is completely out the window.

      Why herd immunity to COVID-19 is reached much earlier than thought

      It seems so. Something similar may have happened with Polio, where delaying infection increased disease progression, and reduced patient viability. Of course, Planned Parent may be considered separately.

      The Key to Defeating COVID-19 Already Exists. We Need to Start Using It

      I am referring, of course, to the medication hydroxychloroquine. When this inexpensive oral medication is given very early in the course of illness, before the virus has had time to multiply beyond control, it has shown to be highly effective, especially when given in combination with the antibiotics azithromycin or doxycycline and the nutritional supplement zinc.

      To be fair, not all leftists.

So Fauci now wants people to wear goggles. How long before we are all required to wear condoms to prevent Covid 19?

    notamemberofanyorganizedpolicital in reply to jaudio. | July 30, 2020 at 2:30 pm

    LoL.

    I was just about the post let’s make Fudgie live in a human sized air proof completely opaque condom.

    rinardman in reply to jaudio. | July 30, 2020 at 2:38 pm

    How long before we are all required to wear condoms to prevent Covid 19?

    My first thought was, just after we’re required to wear full hazmat gear at all times. But then it occurred to me that wearing the full hazmat gear might obviate the need for a condom, in the first place.

    Except for some highly motivated couples, I suppose. 🙂

    n.n in reply to jaudio. | July 30, 2020 at 2:48 pm

    If you’re entering through the back hole, you should already be wearing a condom to mitigate viral transmission a la HIV/AIDS. The primary transmission mode of asymptomatic transfer of Wuhan virus is likely fecal transmission. So, wash your hands, your penis, and avoid black holes… whores h/t NAACP

    n.n in reply to jaudio. | July 30, 2020 at 3:09 pm

    Wearing goggles was always the advised to mitigate aerosolized transmission of the virus. Most governments, experts, businesses, and people do not follow this advice. The eyes are a window to contagion.

      tphillip in reply to n.n. | July 30, 2020 at 5:25 pm

      Can you cite any hospital best practices that require the use of goggles?

      Not properly fitted N95 masks, but actual goggles?

      The world eagerly awaits your citations so we may examine how health professionals use and keep clean goggles.

        GWB in reply to tphillip. | July 31, 2020 at 8:52 am

        He’s right. It was advised to cover mouth, nose and eyes. That level of safety measure quickly disappeared in the media. (It might have even preceded the “don’t wear a mask!” brouhaha and been disappeared at that point.)

        gibbie in reply to tphillip. | July 31, 2020 at 10:47 am

        I recently had a blood test at a hospital. All technicians dealing directly with patients were wearing transparent plastic full face shields. In March, the shortage of these was a Big Deal.

      txvet2 in reply to n.n. | July 31, 2020 at 12:24 am

      I wear sunglasses. Close enough.

    The Friendly Grizzly in reply to jaudio. | July 30, 2020 at 3:19 pm

    I practice safe philosophy. I always use a conundrum.

    ss396 in reply to jaudio. | July 31, 2020 at 9:56 am

    His next ban will be the ear canals as another entrance to your body: cover your mouth, cover your eyes, cover your ears. That sounds like a Leftist Utopia where everyone is deaf, dumb, and blind.

    Dr. Fauci is not an epidemiologist, he’s an immunologist. This recommendation is what an immunologist would want to see, in that such a specialist would promote the utmost against bodily infection. But it does show his lack of expertise in epidemiology: he’s talking about the individual body, while the rest of us are talking about movement in whole populations.

    CaptTee in reply to jaudio. | July 31, 2020 at 4:27 pm

    I guess we all need to take up scuba diving to be safe! What a bunch of !*@&^#%$#.

    henrybowman in reply to jaudio. | July 31, 2020 at 8:17 pm

I am absolutely finetaking my chances going maskless and washing hands well before I eat, and no sharing food or beverages.

The best advice is to assume you will be infected (not limited to novel viruses), and to prepare your body’s systems to confront and overcome this alien intruder. Vitamin D is critical to normal function. And, of course, follow good hygienic practices.

    GWB in reply to n.n. | July 31, 2020 at 8:48 am

    Not if you mean “sanitize your hands continuously and make sure your environment is sterile” when you say “good hygienic practices.” Eat dirt once in a while. Exercise your immune system once in a while.

    But, yeah, wash your hands after you sit for a bit, and such things.

Fauci is a clown. And a political hack.

He’s done more damage to the country than any foreign power could. Trump needs to blow him off.

Now Fauci the Clown is telling people to wear goggles because a virus can get into your orifices. So what’s next, butt plugs, vaginal plugs, ear plugs?

What an idiot.

One would expect fauci the clown to come up with this.

But then, he is a clown.

Denmark (population 5.8 million) can claim a chart similar to Sweden’s (https://nyheder.tv2.dk/samfund/2020-02-27-nyeste-corona-tal-fra-danmark-og-verden-saa-mange-er-smittede-doede-og-indlagte), but whereas Sweden (population 10.3 million) has seen 5,730 COVID-19 deaths, Denmark, with a stricter lockdown, has had only 615 such deaths. In the last week Sweden has had 158 COVID-19 deaths according to above source (use Google translate and the country map), compared to Denmark’s total of 5 in the same period. Denmark has been carefully lifting some of its restrictions and borders, and younger grades are back in school.

Denmark locked down early and rather strictly. Masks have not been a big part of Denmark’s success story, but the Danes are increasingly considering them. See https://www.msn.com/en-us/finance/companies/covid-success-story-stands-out-for-its-controversial-mask-policy/ar-BB17cfUx

Heck, I’ve known for a few decades now that getting out into the sunshine (especially warm sunshine) helped me get over colds faster, as well as with sinus/allergy issues. (The allergy bit is conflicting: being outside exposes one to more of the allergen, but it also helps control symptoms. Go figure.)

But we need a bunch of dudes in lab coats and BC spectacles to give it a scientific imprimatur.

I’ve been taking vitamin D supplements for at least twenty years after reading about its benefits, and my doctor enthusiastically agreed with my regimen. In fact, she has the level of vitamin D metabolite included in my semiannual blood work. The Bride does likewise. There’s some anecdotal evidence that using small doses of melatonin might help. Yep, we do that too.

We think we had mild symptoms of the Wuhan virus around the last week of February and first week of March. There’s no way to know if our routine OTC meds helped but we don’t intend to stop taking them, especially since we’re getting into the greatest risk category.
.

    henrybowman in reply to DSHornet. | July 31, 2020 at 8:29 pm

    Only after I started being conscientious about taking Vitamin D3 did I become aware of how other things I was taking for other reasons (like Glucosamine) were already spiked with Vitamin D3, to the point where I now maybe need to cut back.

    It’s the same feeling as buying your first gun in a blue region, only to discover how many of your neighbors were already discreet gun owners.

Being indoors all of the time is also very depressing. Especially if it means being alone. As with obesity, alcohol abuse is also on the rise, especially for people who no longer get any exercise. I have not seen any numbers but I’ll bet suicides are also on the rise.

At some point, someone will corral the numbers and prove that the morbidity factor for social distancing and lockdowns is much higher than for any lives saved from controlling the infection curve.

Here in LA, our “not-a-doctor” director of the LA County Department of Health Barbara Ferrer, seems obsessed with presenting numbers based on ethnicity and income. She has a PHD is social welfare (warfare?) so for her it’s about the injustice of white people being less impacted by the virus. So that probably is a major factor in shaping her policies. How do we spread the infections more equitably?