Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of increasing public usage of (a) vitamins D and C to improve immune system responses and (b) other potential alternative methods to an annual vaccination to protect against covid-19.

The Scientific Advisory Committee on Nutrition (SACN) considered nutrition and immune function in relation to COVID-19 at its meeting in June 2020 and agreed that a scoping exercise indicated a lack of robust evidence to suggest that specific nutrients, such as vitamins C and D, can reduce the risk or severity of COVID-19.

At its meeting in March 2021, the SACN noted that there was currently no new evidence that would change current dietary advice in relation to immune function. The SACN continues to monitor research in this field, which would include any available evidence on nutrition and vaccine response in relation to COVID-19.

The Antiviral Taskforce has been set up with the aim of identifying an effective novel antiviral treatment to augment the current vaccine and therapeutic programmes. The programme would seek to make available an oral drug that would be able to be taken in an outpatient setting. The drug will target the virus at an early stage, preventing progression to more severe, or even critical, symptoms, and minimising the risk of ‘long’ COVID-19.