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The first sentence from the abstract:

> Low vitamin D status in winter permits viral epidemics. ...

A scientific paper never starts this way, with the claim to be tested stated as fact.

I'm immediately suspicious. The authors are affiliated with:

- Sunlight, Nutrition, and Health Research Center

- GrassrootsHealth

Checking out the respective websites does not inspire confidence. They appear to be vitamin advocacy groups.

There's only so much time in a day. Chasing rabbit holes from papers with suspect form isn't something I care to do.



"vitamin advocacy groups"

What does that even mean? Are you implying that instructing people to supplement vitamins you're deficient in is somehow malicious? I don't understand


They may have a specific interest in the outcome of the study. Like if Pepsi sponsors a study on the effects of sugar and diabetes.

https://www.sunarc.org/benefactors.html https://www.grassrootshealth.net/project/sponsors

Cursory glance, Bio-Tech Pharmacal, a supplements mfg, seems to be a common sponsor.


Well, there's more articles supporting the thesis. E.g. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2870528/


They basically just rewrote an existing paper and added Coronavirus to the title to get clicks. The claims themselves aren't wrong per se, at least as far into it as I read.




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