(Spectator.com.au) I hope this does not count as boasting, but I wrote, rather exasperatedly, about the lack of promotion of vitamin D supplements by our medical authorities in November 2020. That was more than two years ago.

During this interim, the scientific data regarding vitamin D’s benefits against Covid has only strengthened and solidified. Of 104 studies from 29 countries, it is found that adequate vitamin D level is linked with benefits regarding Covid mortality, hospitalization rate, ICU rate, recovery time, and the number of cases. In particular, across 59 studies that examined mortality, adequate vitamin D was associated with an average of 37 per cent reduction in mortality rate.

The latest meta-analysis, published in January of 2023, found that vitamin D administration reduced Covid risk of death by half, and the risk of entering ICU by 70 per cent.

Still, no recommendation of this simple, safe, and cheap prophylaxis has been made by the WHO, CDC, National Institute of Health, etc. This begs the question – what are they for?

Vitamin D is involved not only in maintaining bone strength, but also has a wide range of functions in multiple organs throughout the body. Regarding Covid in particular, it has long been known that vitamin D acts on the ACE-2 receptor in the lungs, through which the Covid virus enters the lung cells.

The body makes the vast majority of vitamin D in the skin, when exposed to sunlight. As a result of modern lifestyles, a significant amount of people are vitamin D insufficient. Even in sunny Down Under, it is estimated that a third of Australians are deficient in vitamin D in the winter months.

Skin colour affects the rate of vitamin D production, with those with darker skin making less vitamin D compared to those with fairer skin. A study in the US found that while the overall vitamin D deficiency rate was 41.6 per cent, it was as high as 82.1 per cent among Blacks, and 69.2 per cent among Hispanics.

This situation is not helped by the lockdowns imposed around the world by various governments, with the advice of these selfsame health authorities. Production of vitamin D requires UVB rays, which are filtered out by window glass.

Not only would a recommendation of vitamin D supplement (or advocating more outdoor time) be beneficial to Covid, but it would also profit general health, including mental health, something sorely needed, as the vast majority of those who suffer serious symptoms or die with Covid had multiple concurrent or underlying diseases.

Instead, the medical authorities, ostensibly run by experts whose job it is to look after people’s health, had pig-headedly stuck to masks, which are inefficient, lockdowns, which have shown no significant impact on the spread or mortality rate of Covid, and the mRNA vaccines, which are not nearly as efficient as they were promised to be, with the real likelihood of serious side effects. Excess deaths, for reasons other than Covid, now far surpass those associated with the pandemic under the guardianship of these health tsars.

Of the precious few drugs recommended for Covid by the FDA, Paxlovid, the Pfizer drug that cost $530 for a 5-day course, while shown to significantly reduce the risk of mortality in those over 65 years of age, could potentially (suggested by one study) increase the risk of mortality in the 40-64 age bracket. Remdesivir, another approved drug that is even costlier at some $2,600 per course, showed little impact.

The ethics of these medical authorities should be scrutinized. And not only on their medical advice, but also their jaw-dropping monetary relationships with big pharma, and whether the former is influenced by the latter. Or ‘Follow the money’, as the old saying goes.

For instance, 46 per cent of the FDA’s budget comes from those they regulate. Dr. Scott Gottlieb, a Pfizer board member, was Commissioner of the FDA until 2019. Elon Musk’s recent release of the Twitter Files revealed, as reported by Fox News, that Gottlieb flagged tweets unfavorable to the vaccine to Twitter’s censors, even though it transpires that those tweets were correct. The tweets were labelled ‘misleading’.

And what about the scores of television news and commentary shows, inexplicably all on the side of big pharma and the agencies that are recommending them, doing so without any reservation or journalistic restraint, that are also ‘Brought to you by Pfizer’?

This pandemic has caused multitudes of damage to societies and health. Ironically, it turns out that the Covid virus is only a part of that harm. Some harsh questions and deep scrutiny need to be applied to the health authorities. Someone needs to guard the so-called guardians.