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Vitamin D info from gov.uk https://www.nhs.uk/live-well/healthy-body/how-to-get-vitamin-d-from-sunlight/
We need vitamin D to help the body absorb calcium and phosphate from our diet. These minerals are important for healthy bones, teeth and muscles.
In the UK, sunlight doesn't contain enough UVB radiation in winter (October to early March) for our skin to be able to make vitamin D.
During these months, we rely on getting our vitamin D from food sources (including fortified foods) and supplements.
Some groups of the population are at greater risk of not getting enough vitamin D.
The Department of Health recommends that these people should take daily vitamin D supplements to make sure they get enough.
These groups are:
all babies from birth to 1 year old (including breastfed babies and formula-fed babies who have less than 500ml a day of infant formula)
all children aged 1 to 4 years old
people who aren't often exposed to the sun (for example, people who are frail or housebound, or are in an institution such as a care home, or if they usually wear clothes that cover up most of their skin when outdoors)
For the rest of the population, everyone over the age of 5 years (including pregnant and breastfeeding women) is advised to consider taking a daily supplement containing 10 micrograms (μg) of vitamin D.But the majority of people aged 5 years and above will probably get enough vitamin D from sunlight in the summer (late March/early April to the end of September), so you might choose not to take a vitamin D supplement during these months.
How do I break up the quotes?
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lynx
Until you provided the paper, quite a lot.
It's a meta analysis, which is good as it brings together the results of lots of trials. Publishing caveat: only positive results are published. Very few negative results are. So as the authors say, there may be a huge negative study out there but they haven't seen the results. But they think their analysis is robust enough.
The greatest benefit is in those with really low (guessing malnutrition levels?) And those taking a weekly dose. Theres no point banging it down now and hoping it'llprovide some benefit.
It's not a vaccine. It shouldn't be pushed as "this is protective" by people on here. Evidence suggests it might be a good thing, from this trial, in areas of malnutrition (which could include the UK true) but there are conflicting data out there in the subject area.
Is it ethical to suggest taking vitamin d will protect you from a cough or cold? Perhaps not.
Is it ethical to suggest, based on this analysis (and not a randomised clinical trial) that vitamin d will protect you from covid 19? Probably not.
Will there be any harm in taking it? Only if you take too much (which is quite a lot).
Is it ethical to suggest a randomised clinical trial of taking vitamin d during covid 19? Probably not.
What about another clinical trial?
Quite probably. How would you do it?