Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the implications for their policies of the review by Professor Philip Calder of the University of Southampton Nutrition, immunity and COVID-19, published on 20 May in the journal BMJ Nutrition, Prevention and Health.

Public Health England (PHE) is aware of the paper by Professor Calder. The Scientific Advisory Committee on Nutrition (SACN) considered the paper as part of a recent scoping exercise on nutrition and immunity. Interim conclusions of the committee were that there is currently a lack of robust evidence to suggest that specific nutrients or nutritional supplements can reduce the risk or severity of COVID-19. SACN and PHE will keep this topic under review.