Here are some things you can do to reduce your risk of contracting COVID-19. I’ve tried to include lots of supporting research so it’s clear how much medical support these suggestions carry.
First, the obvious:
- Wear a mask in public, particularly indoors. COVID-19 is primarily an airborne disease.
- Wash hands frequently and thoroughly and use hand sanitizer. It’s less likely to get COVID-19 this way but still be careful about surfaces.
Next, in order of what seem to me to be most to least important:
Vitamin D has testing, quite a bit of analysis, and good results. Kirkland has 2000 IU Vitamin D3 pills, 1/day should be good. Be wary as somewhere maybe 2-3x this amount is actually toxic. Relevant links for more reading:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7266578/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7276229/
https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.06.24.20138644v1
MMR vaccine. This actually carries over somewhat to COVID-19 immunity. If you were born in the US after 1979 you probably had the 2-shot version, which conveys the most protection. If you were born before 1970 you probably got nothing, though if you got any of those diseases you may have strong lifelong immunity that carries over. If you were born in between, you probably got a 1-shot version. For anyone born before 1979, you could ask your doctor about getting a booster. Relevant links for more reading:
https://asm.org/Press-Releases/2020/MMR-Vaccine-Could-Protect-Against-the-Worst-Sympto
https://www.uspharmacist.com/article/researchers-mmr-vaccine-could-protect-against-covid19
Vitamin C. The evidence for this is weak, but it may reduce mortality and overall boost your immune system. It’s very cheap to take megadoses of Vitamin C and it’s nearly impossible to overdose. Relevant links for more reading:
https://www.covid19treatmentguidelines.nih.gov/adjunctive-therapy/vitamin-c/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6777268/
https://www.webmd.com/lung/qa/can-vitamin-cs-immune-boosting-effects-ward-off-coronavirus
https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/can-vitamin-c-prevent-or-treat-covid-19#theory
Vitamin B. This appears to merely confer a general immune protective effect. I don’t know whether more than what’s in a good multivitamin is warranted, though there are often benefits to taking more Vitamin B. Relevant links for more reading:
https://www.maturitas.org/article/S0378-5122(20)30348-0/fulltext
Lastly, watch out for COVID treatment myths.