Vitamin D and zinc are not a substitute for Covid-19 vaccine

DAVID Halpin may be sincere in his views on Covid vaccines, but he’s seriously misguided.

His medical training in the 1960s bears no relation to the huge advances in molecular technology for vaccine production and to imply specialist knowledge is misleading.

In my response to David’s first letter (22nd February), I stated that his alarming claim that “this material – which is inserted into the genes of every cell” was untrue. In his second letter he misquotes himself but, in the process, has withdrawn that false claim.

He criticises the trials for the Pfizer vaccine, despite the fact that the regulatory authorities in a host of countries (including UK, USA, EU, Canada and Australia) saw the data and independently gave emergency approval. The thrust of his letter is that vaccination is unnecessary because, on the sole basis of his individual experience, vitamin D and zinc can prevent Covid.

I would expect a GCSE biology student to know that anecdotal evidence of that kind is utterly valueless. Some studies have looked at whether vitamin D or zinc can prevent Covid and have failed to confirm this. Very recently a study from Israel suggests that Covid infection may be more severe in those who are vitamin D deficient, although this doesn’t prove cause and effect.

In fact, for other reasons, government guidance already recommends that in autumn and winter we should all take a vitamin D supplement.

However, there are no grounds for recommending higher than standard dosage.

David refers in his letter to ICAN (Informed Consent Action Network) which was founded in 2016 by one of the loudest voices in the US anti-vaccine movement, Del Bigtree, who has produced widely discredited propaganda that has adversely affected the uptake of the routine vaccines that David appears to support. The group were already actively campaigning against Covid vaccines before any were in use. It’s disappointing that David should associate his name with such an organisation.

The Office for National Statistics estimated that in the first year of the pandemic, 883 healthcare workers died of Covid in the UK. Those lives sacrificed in the line of duty must not be forgotten. David should acknowledge that this horrific flood of deaths was stemmed, not by vitamin D and zinc, but by Covid vaccines.

Terry Riordan Ottery St Mary, Devon