Damien

I think there was a strong suspicion that it might but also concerns over if the data really told that story. People with vitamin D deficiencies were doing worse than those without but those with vitamin D deficiencies are also people who may not go out such as the elderly who were already susceptible to COVID. So it was a correlation does not imply causation thing. Remember at the start of this there was also the suspicion that ibuprofen would make COVID worse which turned out not to be true.

So they do a study and it turns out that, at least this time, there is evidence their suspicion is correct. Public Health authorities though are rightly wary of promoting health advice they aren't entirely convinced by.