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Could you infer from this that lockdowns increased Covid-19 severity by reducing exposure to sunlight for the average person?
Good question.

At least we already know that the lockdowns did not really save lifes:

https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2022/jan/31/lockdowns-h...

I wonder also how much damage the "fact checking" of the media has caused. I have seen several "fact checks" that discouraged supplementation of vitamin D with questionable reasoning.

Please stop spreading misinformation.

The so-called "study" is a working paper by economists, so not peer reviewed or anything. Passing this off as settled knowledge ("we already know") is beyond parody.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/brucelee/2022/02/06/did-so-call...

Repeating false information does not make it true.
Are you writing an open letter to the tagesschau now?
(comment deleted)
1. The tagesschau did not post on HN.

2. The tagesschau did not claim this so-called "study" was settled knowledge. It's not. Not even close.

German title:

    Johns Hopkins Studie: Lockdown hat kaum Leben gerettet, wohl aber Masken
In English:

    John's Hopkins study: Lockdown hardly saved lifes, but masks did
Tagesschau is both, the oldest and the most watched news program on German television.
Actually here is where I got it originally from:

https://www.tagesschau.de/newsticker/liveblog-coronavirus-di...

Google Translation:

    # New study: Hardly any lives saved with lockdowns

    The total lockdown during the first corona wave saved almost no lives in Europe and the USA, according to the results of a meta-study by researchers at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, which became the most important data source during the pandemic. However, masks for employees in companies or shops and the closing of bars and restaurants had a clear effect on the number of deaths from Covid-19.

    The researchers examined more than 18,000 global studies on the consequences of the pandemic and only filtered out those that deal with excess mortality from Covid-19. A total of 0.3 percent fewer deaths is the balance for times of total lockdowns with exit restrictions. Masks for employees, on the other hand, have reduced the number of deaths by almost 24 percent, and closed bars by another 15 percent.

    The order that only a few people are allowed to meet counts at three percent, as ARD correspondent Arthur Landwehr in Washington also reports from the study. Closed schools, on the other hand, had almost no effect, namely 0.1 percent, and the researchers were unable to measure any effect at all with closed borders.
Once again, the Tagesschau correctly reported on the contents of the so-called "study".

They, unlike you, never claimed that the study's "findings" were actually settled knowledge.

Spot the difference.

Maybe at least practice what you preach.

> Because the measures we have in place are working.

> (And of course people will reverse the causality on this and claim that "hey Denmark opened, and has much lower fatality rate...")

> Transmission rates would be a lot higher without vaccines.

https://twitter.com/dnunan79/status/1491072159393148929

I do practice what I preach. The measures are working. And transmission rates would be a lot higher without the vaccines.
The signs have been on the wall all the time, but there never have been any large credible studies or trials to prove this, while everyone (and all the money) was focussed on the vaccines and only the vaccines.

Encouraging testing and supplementation of vitamin D in an early phase on top of getting vaccinated could have potentially saved many lifes. Especially for those who cannot be vaccinated.

Instead every time that someone suggested vitamin D for Covid, the media did their best to discredit that as potential misinformation, because not engough data and enough vitamin through healthy diet and outside activity. So instead of encouraging people to optimize their vitamin D, they even discouraged vitamin D, even when it has been known for years that there is an epidemic of vitamin D deficiency.

Similarly there is an epidemic of magnesium deficiency, but not as severe as the low vitamin D epidemic.