Dr. John Faul:

I confirm what Dr. McCartney and Professor Kenny said. There is a trick with latitude. I worked in Palo Alto, California, for a long time, which, I can tell the committee, is very sunny. Many people there, particularly those who work long hours indoors, are vitamin D-deficient merely because it is so sunny that they stay out of the sun all the time. We have seen this in the Covid pandemic, with ordinary workers in China and factory workers in Ireland and across Europe indoors all the time, not getting any sun exposure and not taking supplements because this is the economic group that is, unfortunately, hit hardest by this kind of pandemic.

I support what Professor Kenny said about depression.

As for the prisons, the Deputy talked about studies, but I would not recommend doing a formal study of prison inmates. I think that would be unfair and possibly unethical, but giving vitamin D supplementation to help them would be very worthwhile.