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Does Vitamin D Deficiency Raise COVID-19 Risk? This Medical News Quick Uptake examines the debate about a link between vitamin D and COVID-19 risk.

One of the risk factors du jour for coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has been vitamin D deficiency.

Even Anthony Fauci, MD, has said he takes a vitamin D supplement. Vitamin D “does have an impact on your susceptibility to infection,” Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, told actress Jennifer Garner in a September interview. “I would not mind recommending—and I take it myself—taking vitamin D supplements.”

Most people get some vitamin D from sunlight exposure, although individuals in the US get the nutrient mainly from fortified foods, such as milk, orange juice, and breakfast cereals.

At higher latitudes, people with more melanin content in their skin have lower blood levels of vitamin D because their skin doesn’t produce as much in response to sunlight. A recent article in the Journal of the National Medical Association speculated that vitamin D deficiency “is likely a significant factor” behind disproportionately high COVID-19 cases and deaths among US Black and Latino populations.

An analysis of data from 4962 participants in the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey found that 1981 (39.92%) were vitamin D deficient, defined as a blood level lower than 20 ng/mL (<50 nmol/L). Vitamin D deficiency was greater in certain subpopulations, such as people with obesity or with type 1 or type 2 diabetes—all 3 of which have been associated with worse COVID-19 outcomes.

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