By Clarke Illmatical
The sky is falling, and Black folks are dying. In the United States, African Americans are reported as having the highest number of COVID-19 deaths, based on ethnicity.
Our surgeon general says we are smoking and doing too many drugs. Others believe that socioeconomic factors are the issue because African Americans have a high percentage of essential jobs. Prominent physicians, Dr. Anthony Fauci and Dr. Deborah Birx have insisted that there are no biological reasons why African Americans have high COVID-19 mortality rates.
While the nation has been put on pause due to the COVID-19 virus, which causes, respiratory infection, no health organization has encouraged Americans to fortify their immune systems. And absolutely no one is specifically speaking to Black folk.
However, a number of doctors have provided statistics and studies that suggest that the high African American COVID-19 mortality rate, is linked to a history of a lack of Vitamin-D. This hormone has already proven to be a successful defense against other respiratory infections, and recent medical documents suggest that it could reduce the risk of COVID-19 respiratory infection.
Before he transitioned, holistic health expert, Dr. Llaila Afrika has continually pointed out, that Vitamin D deficiency contributes to a number of African American health problems, including cancer, diabetes, and heart disease. Dr. Afrika made it plain, saying “You gotta take Vitamin D if you live in this climate. You’re not getting enough sun. You go back and look at all of the disease categories, and sure enough, you’re twice as high in all of them, because you’re trying to be healthy by another race’s melanin value. You gotta translate this stuff. You gotta make this stuff Black!”
Since the beginning of the pandemic, Dr. John Campbell has reported on the virus with videos on Youtube. He has provided statistics that indicate that Vitamin D plays a role in fortifying our immune system and decreases the probability of respiratory infection. This would include COVID-19.
He is also one of the few doctors who has spoken candidly about how race places a factor in Vitamin D development, which ultimately may be the reason why African Americans, who already have a proven deficiency in Vitamin D, are suffering from COVID-19.
During a discussion, the good doctor made it plain, saying “For a functioning immune system, you need good levels of all nutrients. In New York if you’re dark-colored or if you live in the north of England, you don’t get enough sun. Most of the Vitamin D we get comes from the sunlight. The darker the skin, the more slowly you’re going to make Vitamin D.”
Why Do African Americans Have Less Vitamin D than White Americans?
Dr. Kelechi Egwim, a chemical engineer, explained saying “Here in America, we are in a Northern region. As Black people, we are in a place where we are less favored in terms of absorbing enough ultraviolet radiation on a regular basis to produce enough Vitamin D.
We have an epidemic of Vitamin D deficiency. It plays a part in all these underlying conditions that make you more vulnerable to the novel coronavirus. We’re in the same latitude as Europe or where they were adapted to.
They are less likely to have that deficiency. We’re more likely to have that deficiency, because our skin, for this part of the world, we are disadvantaged in our capacity to produce vitamin D because our skin is too dark for this region of the world.”
Speaking specifically on the high mortality African Americans COVID-19 rates, he said: “It is almost predictable that we would be more vulnerable.”
How do African Americans get sufficient amounts of vitamin D? And how much Vitamin D do we need?
African Americans and the rest of Black people living in North America need between 3000 – 5000 International Units (IUs) of Vitamin D3 a day and this cannot be accomplished by our diet.
Dr. Egwim noted that in the summertime, it is possible for African Americans to generate almost 20,000(IUs) an hour and the best source of Vitamin D is the sun. In the winter and fall, supplements such as Cod Liver Oil, Black Seed Oil, and a natural Vitamin D3 should be used.
When it comes to the discussion of COVID-19, we have to make it Black, because America will not do it for us.