<story><title>Over 80% of Covid-19 patients in a hospital study have Vitamin D deficiency</title><url>https://www.endocrine.org/news-and-advocacy/news-room/2020/study-finds-over-80-percent-of-covid19-patients-have-vitamin-d-deficiency</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>MichaelMoser123</author><text>Nobody seems to be asking a related question: in a sunny country like Israel vitamin D deficiency should be less common, does that translate into fewer Covid-19 cases?&lt;p&gt;Well, there seem to be differences between different ethnic &amp;amp; religious groups, but on average vitamin D deficiency seems to be less prevalent in Israel: &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov&amp;#x2F;28647929&amp;#x2F;&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov&amp;#x2F;28647929&amp;#x2F;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;However Covid-19 cases don&amp;#x27;t seem to have been lacking in Israel &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.worldometers.info&amp;#x2F;coronavirus&amp;#x2F;country&amp;#x2F;israel&amp;#x2F;&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.worldometers.info&amp;#x2F;coronavirus&amp;#x2F;country&amp;#x2F;israel&amp;#x2F;&lt;/a&gt;</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>reuven</author><text>There was a newspaper article (in Israel, where I live) on this subject. It noted that the two populations most mostly likely to suffer from covid are Haredim (ultra-Orthodox Jews) and Arabs, both of which tend to dress conservatively, and the latter of which have darker skin than the average Israeli, and thus might have less vitamin D in their systems.&lt;p&gt;Of course, these two populations also tend to be poorer and have larger families living together, so there are other factors to consider as well.&lt;p&gt;For example, Israelis are told to worry about skin cancer, and thus tend to use sunblock when going out in the summer. Which removes the chance of serious vitamin D generation, from what I understand.&lt;p&gt;I find the discussion of vitamin D to be very interesting, but it feels like we need a few more studies to determine whether this is the big one.  But the more discussions I see, the more I think it might actually explain quite a lot.</text></comment>
<story><title>Over 80% of Covid-19 patients in a hospital study have Vitamin D deficiency</title><url>https://www.endocrine.org/news-and-advocacy/news-room/2020/study-finds-over-80-percent-of-covid19-patients-have-vitamin-d-deficiency</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>MichaelMoser123</author><text>Nobody seems to be asking a related question: in a sunny country like Israel vitamin D deficiency should be less common, does that translate into fewer Covid-19 cases?&lt;p&gt;Well, there seem to be differences between different ethnic &amp;amp; religious groups, but on average vitamin D deficiency seems to be less prevalent in Israel: &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov&amp;#x2F;28647929&amp;#x2F;&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov&amp;#x2F;28647929&amp;#x2F;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;However Covid-19 cases don&amp;#x27;t seem to have been lacking in Israel &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.worldometers.info&amp;#x2F;coronavirus&amp;#x2F;country&amp;#x2F;israel&amp;#x2F;&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.worldometers.info&amp;#x2F;coronavirus&amp;#x2F;country&amp;#x2F;israel&amp;#x2F;&lt;/a&gt;</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>DoreenMichele</author><text>In some conservative Muslim countries -- often found in sunny areas -- girls have high rates of vitamin D deficiency because of the practice of being very covered up anytime they leave the house. I read some book authored by a woman from such a country and one of the details that stood out was a remark she made about how every woman who gets out of those countries remarks on how wonderful it is be able to just go outside without a veil and feel the sun on your skin.&lt;p&gt;Plus, as others have noted, some of those countries have very young populations and darker skin tones of local inhabitants impacts vitamin D production as well.&lt;p&gt;There are really going to be a lot of factors involved.</text></comment>