Vegans were recently up in arms when it transpired that people recovering from Covid were being advised by a National Health Service online programme to heal their bodies with “meat, fish, eggs, and cheese” and to “hydrate” with dairy milk. Notably, the old established wisdom of five-a-day fruit and veg was lacking.

 The advice is strangely uninformed and misplaced, given Covid’s suspected zoonotic origins. In fact, two studies have found a plant-based diet to be of use in lessening the severity of the virus. One study, published in BMJ Nutrition, Prevention & Health found that vegans were 73% less likely to suffer from the severest symptoms of Covid, while the second study was the “largest study to date examining the links between diet and disease”, according to Plant Based News. Indeed, the ZOE COVID Symptom Study looked at data from 600,000 participants and concluded that vegans were 9% less likely to catch Covid-19 in the first place, while omnivores whose diets were high in animal proteins were at increased risk of the virus’ severest symptoms.