The paper raises interesting questions about the promulgation of results to media by University PR departments, and the overreaching spin is put on them. This observations in the above cited paper, also like that of Ilie (using country-level data from 20 European nations https://www.researchsquare.com/article/rs-21211/v1 ) , need to be set in the wider context.  

There are now 7 observational preprints looking a COVID positive patients (largest 780 patients) suggesting low vitamin d is strongly liked with severity and mortality, which studies have more inherent power than any statistical analysis of wider data. For list please see https://www.bmj.com/content/369/bmj.m1548/rr-19

Rapid Response: Low vitamin D: high risk COVID-19 mortality? Seven preprints suggest that is case. Does low ‘D’ put BAME and elderly, at particular COVID-19 risk? Testing and Data Required. BMJ 2020;369:m1548 doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.m1548

There is also a prior paper to Ilie. We chose not to try and make statistical associations for the reasons above, none the less were pleased to see others were seeing similar factors at play. Acknowledgement of our prior paper using more or less similar data would have been appreciated.

Vitamin D deficiency: a factor in COVID-19, progression, severity and mortality? – An urgent call for research Brown R*, Sarkar A https://www.mitofit.org/images Posted Online 2020-03-24/e/ec/Brown_et_al_2020_MitoFit_Preprint_Arch_doi_10.26214_mitofit_200001.pdf

The concluding last paragraph of the this media report over reaches the results of  a thought provoking paper. When all data is considered, in the context of biology, physiology, historic wider research, and the above 7 pre-prints, it is a reasonable posit that vitamin D features in COVID severity and mortality. Human deficiency disorders such as rickets, beriberi, scurvy, goitre, were not resolved with RCTs but observation at various levels.

News items that deny the reasonable possibly of the observations that vitamin D factors in COVID-19 severity and mortality are arguably hugely damaging, because they risk closing off research into vitamin D and COVID, a cheap, widely available, potential mechanism for reducing the impact of COVID-19, which as well known, is sadly the cause of many early death, and much economic damage.