Dr. John Faul:

I thank Deputy Shortall for her support and her good questions. Very briefly, partly the problem with Covid is that it is new. All of this did not exist two years ago. We are all learning as we go along. Many of the recommendations that NPHET might have made last November are changing all the time. I hope that as the science catches up with the information that is out there we will know more and more. We are beginning to learn that more supplementation is better. To back up what my colleagues said, because of the lockdown we have even less sun exposure. None of our patients with respiratory illnesses are going on sunny holidays, which are good for them. They are in lockdown and they cannot get vitamin D from the sun. For this reason alone we should be increasing the supplementation.