David Cullinane (Waterford, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I welcome all of the witnesses. I have a couple of questions for Dr. McCartney. If it is possible, I ask him to answer them first. I appreciate others have different fields of expertise, but if everybody answers the first questions that are put my ten minutes will be up. I want to understand where we go from here and what the HSE needs to do, which is the most important part of this meeting from my perspective.

I want to get a sense of the issues. In his opening statement, Dr. McCartney said there is an extensive body of international research showing the protective role of vitamin D. He then discussed geographic studies which have shown that Covid-19 incidence and mortality are higher in countries far from the equator and in countries with confirmed low vitamin D status. He went on to say that in May 2020 data emerged showing a direct relationship between low vitamin D and an increased risk of SARS-CoV-2 infection, severe disease and death. Can he give us some more information on where that data is coming from?