“ A new, Yale-led study suggests that a range of respiratory viral infections — including COVID-19 and influenza — may be preventable or treatable with a generic antibiotic that is delivered to the nasal passageway.
A team led by Yale’s Akiko Iwasaki and former Yale researcher Charles Dela Cruz successfully tested the effectiveness of neomycin, a common antibiotic, to prevent or treat respiratory viral infections in animal models when given to the animals via the nose. The team then found that the same nasal approach — this time applying the over-the-counter ointment Neosporin — also triggers a swift immune response by interferon-stimulated genes (ISGs) in the noses of healthy humans.
The findings were published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
“This is an exciting finding, that a cheap over-the-counter antibiotic ointment can stimulate the human body to activate an antiviral response,” said Iwasaki, the Sterling Professor of Immunobiology and professor of dermatology at Yale School of Medicine and co-senior author of the new study.
A nasal-centered therapy has a much better chance of stopping infections before they can spread to the lower respiratory tract and cause severe diseases, the researchers said.“
http://news.yale.edu/2024/04/22/common-antibiotic-may-be-helpful-fighting-respiratory-viral-infections
I’m up in New York these days, and saw my doctor in Manhattan for annual checkup purposes, and asked him about doing a booster before going to Greece for the summer, and he said two things:
A. The mrna vaccines are too strong for the relative low level of seriousness of the current virus, and repeated boosters can cause side effects, so no, as they can cause inflammations. He got osteoarthritis for 3 months after the last booster last fall, so not necessary to boost at this time, especially since Paxlovid takes care of it.
B. He mentioned the Neosporin thing. I use Neosporin for cuts all the time. This news is great. Use it on the plane ride as described in the Yale paper.
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