There have been more studies since when this came out, which signals the probable importance of zinc in COVID prevalence. Plus they were only looking at mortality so there will always be fewer papers. Does this leave you less suspicious?

These are all studies released in 2024:

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/10408398.2022.21...

https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12011-023-03788-9

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S00223...

https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Mohammad-Alam-86/public...

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-024-53202-0

https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fnut.2024.13855...

https://bmcnutr.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s40795-02...

https://link.springer.com/article/10.1186/s41043-024-00504-8

https://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/ben/cmc/pre-prints/co...

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S266614972...

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/ptr.8096