[Congressional Record Volume 168, Number 85 (Wednesday, May 18, 2022)]
[House]
[Page H5172]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                   BENEFITS OF VITAMIN D FOR COVID-19

  (Mr. GROTHMAN asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute.)
  Mr. GROTHMAN. Madam Speaker, the good news is the COVID pandemic is 
kind of under control. Nevertheless, we still have about 250 people a 
day who die of COVID and over 1 million people have died in this 
country.
  I think one of the failures of the public health establishment and 
the medical establishment is the failure to educate the public about 
the benefits of vitamin D. Researchers found that if you have 
inadequate vitamin D levels, defined as under 200 nanograms per 
milliliter, you are 11 times as likely to die of the disease.
  Can you imagine how many lives would have been saved if we tested for 
vitamin D and everybody had adequate vitamin D in their blood?
  The public health establishment failed us by not educating the public 
enough on vitamin D, and it is time we stepped it up, even though it 
looks like we are near the end of the pandemic. And the medical 
establishment ought to always test for vitamin D with people who are at 
risk for this disease, particularly people with darker skin, and 
particularly people who are a little heavy. It is very important to 
test for vitamin D.
  I know the medical establishment feels that they might not get 
reimbursed quite enough from the insurance companies, but I will tell 
you, people in the medical establishment, and I am talking about the 
administrators, in particular, who are making these judgments, ought to 
put profit aside for a second and make sure that we get these tests on 
people, because if they come under 20 nanograms, they are greatly at 
risk for dying.

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