key: cord-0973671-1itor6ic
authors: Rhodes, Jonathan M.; Subramanian, Sreedhar; Laird, Eamon; Kenny, Rose A.
title: Editorial: low population mortality from COVID‐19 in countries south of latitude 35 degrees North supports vitamin D as a factor determining severity
date: 2020-04-28
journal: Aliment Pharmacol Ther
DOI: 10.1111/apt.15777
sha: a017b66c153476b8ab91c325a71ea83f1f23c57c
doc_id: 973671
cord_uid: 1itor6ic

LINKED CONTENT This article is linked to Al‐Ani et al and Garg et al papers. To view these articles, visit https://doi.org/10.1111/apt.15779 and https://doi.org/10.1111/apt.15796.

pandemic that has been established remarkably rapidly by very effective international collaboration. 1 Much of the focus has appropriately been on the potential impact of immuno-modulating therapies.

We would also like to highlight the potential importance of nutrition and particularly vitamin D as raised by Panarese and Shahini. 2 There are marked variations in mortality from COVID-19 between different countries. It is becoming clear that countries in the Southern Hemisphere are seeing a relatively low mortality ( Figure 1 and Evidence that vitamin D might protect against infection is modest but it is important to note that the hypothesis is not that vitamin 

Correlation between mortality from COVID-19 per million by country and latitude. All countries with >150 cases included. Data are from https://www.world omete rs.info/coron aviru s/ 3 accessed 15th April 2020. Latitude is for capital city. It can be seen that mortality is relatively low at latitudes less than 35 degrees North, the point below which adequate sunlight is likely to have been received to maintain vitamin D levels during the winter. Correlation between mortality and latitude r = 0.53, P < 0.0001 by Spearman's rank correlation 

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