Here's the latest informative medical news roundup from Dr Ruth Ann Crystal:

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Dr. Ruth Report 5/3/26

Ruth Ann Crystal MD, May 03, 2026

Respiratory illnesses have finally decreased significantly overall.

• RSV activity has peaked in most regions of the country and is decreasing.

• Flu activity continues to decrease. As of May 2, Influenza B is still high in many parts of the country per WastewaterSCAN. In Palo Alto, Influenza B is still moderately high.

• COVID activity is low in most parts of the United States.

The CDC reported that Nebraska had HIGH levels of SARS-CoV-2 in wastewater on 4/25/26, but there were only 2 sites reporting and they are right next to each other- one of which is VERY HIGH and the other of which is reported as VERY LOW.

As of 5/2/26, Omaha has LOW levels of SARS-CoV-2 in wastewater according to WastewaterSCAN.

Wastewater SCAN: https://data.wastewaterscan.org/

Regional wastewater levels for COVID, RSV, Flu A, Flu B.

Influenza B is still high in wastewater in many parts of the country.

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Acute COVID infections, General COVID info

4/29/26 Nature: Macrophage-derived MBL restrains coronavirus-induced pulmonary inflammation by modulating metabolic regulator PKM2-mediated NLRP3 activation https://buff.ly/IufGvv1

Southern Medical University (Guangzhou) researchers find that mannose-binding lectin (MBL), produced by macrophages, curbs coronavirus lung inflammation by binding directly to the metabolic enzyme PKM2. This blocks a structural shift in PKM2 that would otherwise drive NLRP3 inflammasome overactivation, reducing caspase-1 cleavage, IL-1β release, and lung tissue damage.

4/28/26 Nature: Widespread gene-environment interactions shape the immune response to SARS-CoV-2 infection in hospitalized COVID-19 patients https://buff.ly/UuvYd8h

Scientists used single-cell RNA sequencing to study immune responses in COVID patients, recovered patients, and healthy people. They found that genes and environmental factors interact to shape the body’s response to infection. About 17% of immune-related genetic regions changed activity during infection, especially in monocytes through interferon and metabolic pathways, helping explain why COVID may affect people differently.

Pediatrics

4/29/26 BMC Infectious Diseases: Association of race, ethnicity, and pediatric long COVID and MIS-C: a systematic review and meta-analysis https://buff.ly/mPAApD2

UTHealth Houston School of Public Health reviewed 31 studies and found non-Hispanic Black children faced 2.37 times higher odds of MIS-C and 89% higher odds of ICU admission than non-Hispanic White children. Hispanic children showed lower severe MIS-C risk but higher overall incidence, while Black children in UK cohorts faced more than 16 times the odds of PIMS-TS, underscoring structural healthcare inequities.

Vaccines

4/28/26 Nature Structural & Molecular Biology: TMPRSS2-mediated coronavirus spike activation and inhibition https://buff.ly/BXfvOZx

University of Washington (Veesler lab) researchers show that TMPRSS2 cleaves the SARS-CoV-2 spike only after ACE2 binding drives it into the early fusion intermediate conformation, exposing the S2 prime site at R815 and triggering membrane fusion. Antibodies targeting this site block TMPRSS2 access and SARS-CoV-2 viral infection. The team computationally designed a stabilized version of this as a vaccine candidate.

Antiviral treatments

4/27/26 Journal of Virology: SARS-CoV-2 3CLpro mutations T21I and E166A confer differential resistance to simnotrelvir, bofutrelvir, and ensitrelvir https://buff.ly/4JRQpyf

Just as bacteria can become resistant to antibiotics, viruses can become resistant tot antiviral medications. Researchers find that two mutations in the SARS-CoV-2 main protease (T21I and E166A), selected under simnotrelvir pressure, confer mild to moderate resistance against simnotrelvir, nirmatrelvir, and ensitrelvir. Bofutrelvir retains strong activity against these variants due to its aldehyde warhead chemistry, and both simnotrelvir and bofutrelvir remained effective in mouse studies.

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Long COVID

4/29/26 Nature: Current status and future perspectives on the mechanistic and pathophysiological understanding of long COVID https://buff.ly/ZASWfoq

This week, Nature had a review from an all-star team of Long COVID researchers looking at “current knowledge, gaps, and future directions for research, diagnosis, and treatment” of Long COVID. Faghy et al. reviewed Long COVID, which now affects over 400 million people and carries estimated annual economic costs exceeding $1 trillion. Symptoms spanning cognitive dysfunction, severe fatigue, and post-exertional malaise are likely driven by immune dysregulation, viral persistence, autonomic dysfunction, and microvascular damage, yet no validated diagnostic criteria or proven treatments currently exist.

From: https://www.nature.com/articles/s43856-025-01300-z/figures/1

Fig. 2: The role of viral persistence in Long COVID.

Mechanistic insight into the role of viral persistence across different systems and tissues in the context of Long COVID, image published by Chen et al.¹⁰⁸.

From: https://www.nature.com/articles/s43856-025-01300-z/figures/3

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5/1/26 Pilot and Feasibility Studies: An open-label, clinical feasibility study of the efficacy of Remdesivir for Long-COVID https://buff.ly/mLUFvK3

UK researchers will study a feasibility trial of “5-day intravenous treatment with Remdesivir for patients with Long COVID (LC). The treatment is already effective in the treatment of patients with acute severe cases of SARS-CoV-2. Remdesivir has an established safety profile.”

Of note, there are oral versions of Remdesivir like Obeldesivir (ODV) being developed. Obeldesivir is currently being tested in phase 3 trials for COVID treatment, but the drug may also be effective against filoviruses, including Marburg virus, Ebola virus, and Sudan virus (SUDV). If it is approved, I believe that it could be important to trial a longer course of Obeldesivir or another antiviral, in combination with either a monoclonal antibody or an immunomodulatory drug, to treat viral persistence, inflammation and immune system exhaustion in Long COVID.

4/10/26 Viruses: Integrative Insights into the Immunopathogenesis and Organ-Specific Immunological Mechanisms of Long COVID: A Narrative Review https://buff.ly/Bf1rVT4

In a lengthy review, Indian researchers looked at Long COVID mechanisms across organ systems and found that it may be driven by a multifactorial interplay of persistent viral reservoirs, chronic immune activation, autoimmunity, microvascular injury, and organ-specific inflammation. They noted that no single pathway dominates.

4/12/26 Frontiers in Immunology: Pathophysiological mechanisms of post-exertional malaise: an integrative analysis based on the metabolism-immune-neuro interaction model https://buff.ly/234D4ia

Chengdu University researchers reviewed how post-exertional malaise (PEM) may arise from a self-perpetuating loop of mitochondrial dysfunction, immune activation, and neuroinflammation. In people with underlying vulnerability from prior infection, physical or emotional exertion may act as a second hit that overwhelms adaptive repair, converting normal metabolic stress into escalating inflammatory injury and central fatigue seen in PEM.

Figure 1. The Two-Hit Model and Provocation Framework for Post-Exertional Malaise (PEM).

From: https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/immunology/articles/10.3389/fimmu.2026.1774310/full

4/27/26 Arthritis & Rheumatology: Differences in SARS‐CoV‐2 antigen persistence in individuals with systemic autoimmune rheumatic diseases compared to the general population: A RECOVER‐Adult Cohort Study https://buff.ly/cSmABMv

Mass General Brigham researchers compared 210 patients with systemic autoimmune rheumatic diseases to 348 controls and found nearly 3x higher odds of detectable viral antigens at three months and over 6x higher nucleocapsid antigen positivity at six months. Unlike controls, antigen levels in the rheumatic disease group did not decline between those timepoints, implicating immunosuppressive medications as the likely driver.

4/30/26 J of Extracellular Vesicles: When Viruses Talk through Extracellular Vesicles: a New Perspective on Sars‐Cov‐2‐Induced Neurodegeneration https://buff.ly/VuqtK6n

Dutch scientists propose that extracellular vesicles carrying SARS-CoV-2 proteins and dysregulated microRNAs can cross the blood-brain barrier and disrupt three pathways shared with Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease: neurovascular integrity, metabolic homeostasis, and protein quality control. The authors position these vesicles as potential drivers of chronic neuroinflammation and neurodegeneration well after viral clearance.

4/27/26 Endocrine Reviews: Regulatory Cycles of Orexin and Glucagon-Like Peptide-1 in Post-Viral Syndromes https://buff.ly/fdOElIg

Philipps University Marburg (Germany) researchers review how disrupted orexin and GLP-1 signaling may connect the fatigue, sleep dysfunction, and metabolic abnormalities seen in Long COVID and ME/CFS. The review also examines GLP-1’s neuroprotective and anti-inflammatory roles and highlights GLP-1 receptor agonists and orexin-targeted drugs as promising treatment avenues for post-viral syndromes.

4/29/26 MedRxiV: Diagnostic Classification for Long Covid Patients identifying Persistent Virus and Hyperimmune Pathophysiologies https://buff.ly/0isHTah

University of Exeter researchers, using Attomarker‘s multiplex antibody platform in 159 Long COVID patients, identified that 62% of patients showed antibody patterns consistent with incomplete viral clearance and persistent infection, while about 12% displayed a hyperimmune profile. The findings support patient stratification toward targeted treatments.

4/29/26 NeuroImage: Decreased functional connectivity in post-COVID syndrome patients with high neuroinflammatory activity https://buff.ly/3GgGSxe

Amsterdam UMC researchers combined PET and MRI in 45 post-COVID patients finding that higher brain inflammation on PET was associated with weaker connectivity in brain networks governing attention and higher cognition (thinking). Thalamic and somatomotor network changes tracked with neurocognitive complaints, while brainstem connectivity changes tracked with neuroinflammatory activity.

4/29/26 Acta Neuropathologica: Pathogenic IgG from long COVID patients with neurological sequelae triggers sensitive but not cognitive impairments upon transfer into mice https://buff.ly/ULEZQQr

Belgian researchers purified IgG from 13 Long COVID patients with neurological symptoms and injected it into mice. The antibodies accumulated in dorsal root ganglia sensory neurons and produced transient mechanical and thermal pain hypersensitivity, with no effect on memory, anxiety, or depression, supporting autoantibody-mediated peripheral pain as one part of Long COVID.

1/26/26 Sensors & Diagnostics: Snapshot of long COVID in young adults: fast screening using electronic noses https://buff.ly/Jvk5KEB

A team from Mexico and Germany studied 78 university students with prior COVID infection and found 29.5% met WHO Delphi criteria for Long COVID despite normal lung function tests. They used an “electronic nose” to analyze exhaled breath volatile organic compounds (VOC) which distinguished Long COVID from controls with 97.4% accuracy, suggesting breath analysis as a rapid, noninvasive screening approach for Long COVID in younger populations.

4/16/26 Vaccines (Italy): Autoimmune Features of Post-COVID-19 Vaccination Syndrome and Their Impacts on the Renin–Angiotensin System https://buff.ly/VoTxgKZ

Verona and Milan researchers looked at post-COVID-19 vaccination syndrome (PACVS) and presented data from 17 patients showing autoantibodies to ACE2 and MAS1 receptors that may disrupt the renin-angiotensin system. Anti-ACE2 correlated significantly with skin symptoms and hypertension, while anti-MAS1 correlated with widespread burning pain, pointing to RAS dysregulation as a possible PACVS mechanism.

ME/CFS

4/28/26 Annals of Family Medicine (Mayo Clinic): Underuse of Pharmacologic Therapies for Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (ME/CFS) Before Specialist Evaluation https://buff.ly/WTYUESX

Mayo Clinic researchers reviewed records of 571 ME/CFS patients referred to specialty care between 2018 and 2022 and found that medications used most often before consultation targeted pain, sleep, and mood, while specialist-favored options like low dose naltrexone, aripiprazole, and pyridostigmine were rarely prescribed. Meanwhile, 72.2% of patients were using supplements to manage symptoms.

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Measles

CDC Measles updates (on Wed.): https://www.cdc.gov/measles/data-research/index.html

As of April 30, 2026, 1,814 confirmed measles cases were reported in the United States in 2026.

“In the first 4 months of 2026, there have been 1,814 confirmed measles cases (& doubtless many more that were never confirmed). For context: That’s 79% of the total for the entirety of 2025 — but in 4 months, not 12.” -Helen Branswell

5/1/26 ABC: After nearly 1,000 cases, here’s how South Carolina officials beat back a measles outbreak https://buff.ly/5yMTC5w

The South Carolina measles outbreak that started in October 2025 has finally been declared over after a total of 997 confirmed measles cases, mostly in unvaccinated children. “Measles vaccinations [were] the most effective single containment tool,” Dr. James Harber… told ABC News. “And then to identify the index cases and their exposures and enforcing quarantine, and there’s that integrated public health and private sector collaboration. Those are the keys.”

Utah Department of Public Health (Measles): https://epi.utah.gov/measles-response/

In Utah, there have been 31 new measles cases reported to public health in the last 3 weeks, with 197 cases noted in 2025 and an additional 428 measles cases reported since the beginning of 2026.

4/30/26 NEJM Evidence: Detection of a Single Measles Infection Using Untargeted Ultra-Deep Metagenomic Sequencing of Wastewater in Cook County, Illinois https://buff.ly/JZuqfeI

Wastewater analysis can be powerful. Researchers at the University of Illinois at Chicago and the Illinois Department of Public Health detected a single measles infection in a Cook County wastewater system serving more than 1 million people, identifying just 43 matching reads out of nearly 1 billion sequenced. Genomic analysis confirmed the wastewater sequences matched a clinical isolate from an unvaccinated child, demonstrating the remarkable sensitivity of wastewater surveillance for infectious diseases.

John Hopkins US Measles Tracker: https://publichealth.jhu.edu/ivac/resources/us-measles-tracker

• There were 64 cases of measles reported in the U.S. in the last 2 weeks.

Other news

5/1/26 Kristen Panthagani, MD, PhD: Did AI really beat ER doctors at ER triage? https://buff.ly/y0281DX

Great summary by Dr. Kristen Panthagani about the misleading new article from Science magazine (see below) that has the lay press saying that AI is better at diagnosing medical issues than ER doctors. The Science article had significant flaws including testing 2 internal medicine doctors and not ER doctors, making the goal of the study to find a final diagnosis and not to avoid emergencies, and the AI was fed all of the work of the ER team without gleaning this itself.

4/30/26 Science: Performance of a large language model on the reasoning tasks of a physician https://buff.ly/vMVL3UZ

4/27/26 J Clinical Oncology: Safety and Clinical Outcomes of Pooled Donor, Nonengrafting Expanded Progenitor Cells in Single-Unit Cord Blood Transplantation https://buff.ly/vvCJ55q

In a phase II trial, researchers at Fred Hutch Cancer Center treated 28 patients with leukemia or related blood cancers using a single umbilical cord blood transplant plus Dilanubicel, an expanded stem cell product from pooled cord blood donors. The treatment showed strong safety and effectiveness: 96% survived at least one year, with no severe graft-versus-host disease.

4/24/26 KFF Health News: A ‘Barbaric’ Problem in American Hospitals Is Only Getting Bigger https://buff.ly/lzNpqom

Emergency departments are so overwhelmed and hospitals are full that they “board” patients who are waiting to be admitted in the hallways of the ED for hours, days and even weeks. “In this limbo state, you’re technically admitted to the hospital, but still located in the physical domain of the ER. And the rules governing acceptable care and safety measures become much less clear.” This is subpar care and a public health catastrophe.

4/2/26 Cancer Immunology Research: Concurrent Pituitary and Thyroid Immune-Related Adverse Events after Immune Checkpoint Inhibitors Associated with HLA-DR15–Related Haplotypes https://buff.ly/1sXhkoG

Human leukocyte antigens (HLA) were analyzed in patients who developed pituitary and/or thyroid immune-related adverse events (irAE) after use of immune checkpoint inhibitor medications for cancer treatment. The frequency of the HLA-DRB1*15:01 and DRB1*15:02 haplotypes were found to be significantly higher in these patients. In the future, precision immunotherapy should include pretreatment testing of HLA haplotypes.

4/23/26 NY Times: New Gene Therapy Enables Children With a Rare Form of Deafness to Hear https://buff.ly/oikLsHF

“The Food and Drug Administration on Thursday approved a gene therapy that can cure a rare, inherited form of deafness. The treatment is the first to restore normal hearing in children who were born deaf…The maker of the therapy, Regeneron, plans to provide it free to any child who needs it.”

4/24/26 PBS: 988 hotline linked to thousands fewer youth suicide deaths since launch, study finds https://buff.ly/pkCS07V

Harvard Medical School researchers published in JAMA an analysis of national death certificate data from 1999 to 2024 and found suicide deaths among 15 to 34-year-olds ran 11% lower than projected in the first two and a half years after the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline launched in July 2022, representing roughly 4,400 fewer deaths than expected. States with the largest increases in call volume saw the steepest declines.

4/19/26 CNN: Photographer Steve Parke’s new book on Prince https://buff.ly/9zvdP2N

Photo: Steve Parke

4/29/26 People: Baby Born on Board Delta Flight Pictured with Mom Moments After Birth as EMT Shares New Delivery Details (Exclusive) https://buff.ly/I3KrgMD

Mom Ashley Blair unexpectedly gave birth on a Delta flight from Atlanta to Portland this week with the assistance of 2 EMTs on board. Baby Brielle arrived safely shortly before landing and the whole plane cheered when the baby cried to announce her arrival.

EMTs Kaarin Powell and Tina Fritz, with Ashley Blair and her newborn baby Brielle.

I’ll be taking next week off from the newsletter.

Have a good week,

Ruth Ann Crystal MD

Jews For Platner?!

This is David Harsanyi at The Daily Signal 5-3-26. I'm Jewish, and I personally can't understand why ANYONE who's Jewish would endorse such a candidate, unless their radicalism is more important to them than their religion, their culture, their history -- and their decency.

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Nazi Tattoo? Hamas Defender? No Problem, Says Chuck Schumer

"Maine Gov. Janet Mills has suspended her Senate campaign after failing to raise enough money to compete with socialist Graham Platner, who will now almost certainly face the perpetual centrist Republican Susan Collins in the general.

"Chuck Schumer and Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee Chairwoman Kirsten Gillibrand immediately backed Platner, proving that there’s virtually nothing a leftist can say or do that is disqualifying.

"So, for 20 years, you’ve had a Totenkopf tattoo, which depicts a skull and crossbones, most famously used by Hitler’s Schutzstaffel, the paramilitary organization that led, planned and executed the Holocaust?

"No problem!

"You’d think that picking this symbol out of all symbols that exist in the entire world would be problematic. Not for Schumer, self-styled defender of Jewish interests and author of the book, “Antisemitism in America: A Warning.”

"In keeping with the message of his tattoo, Platner has also praised the Islamic supremacists of Hamas. Let’s face it, that’s not exactly extraordinary among progressives these days.

"How about boosting social media posts by neo-Nazi Holocaust deniers like Stew Peters? Does Schumer care that Platner is a self-described “long-time fan” and obsequious podcast guest of Jew-hating conspiracy theorist Nate Cornacchia? Apparently not.

"Does it matter to Schumer that the candidate also referred to himself as “communist”?

"The stigma of that word is fading quickly on the contemporary Left. Some Democrats laugh at the notion that Platner could be both communist and Nazi, even though the two ideologies are quite similar in many respects.

"And this communist has also endorsed “revolutionary violence.” Coming off the third attempted assassination of President Donald Trump by a would-be killer who embraced rhetoric virtually indistinguishable from Platner’s, you might assume that a major political party would be concerned about violent rhetoric.

"Not Schumer, who, to be fair, once threatened Supreme Court justices if they ruled against his partisan wishes.

"What if a Democratic candidate for the Senate referred to rural white Americans as “racist and stupid”?

"Not that long ago, that might have posed a small crisis for the national party. Especially in a state like Maine, which, as it turns out, is one, if not the, whitest state in the country and home to lots of rural Americans.

"Platner, who plays a working-class oyster farmer, is the nepo baby of a former assistant district attorney and major Democratic donor and attended a $75,000-per-year Connecticut boarding school. Which is to say, if Democrats fall for his schtick, they may or may not be racist, but they’re definitely stupid.

"Listen, everyone makes mistakes, though perhaps something less drastic than permanently inking Nazi imagery on their chest. Platner keeps apologizing for every new comment that pops up, and there will almost certainly be more.

"What if the man has shown terrible temperament and judgment, little intelligence and exhibited no perceptible skill that makes them right to serve in the most important deliberative body in the country? No problem.

"A few years back, then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi dismissed the influence of socialists like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez as largely irrelevant, noting that their influence extended to “like, five people.”

"Well, since that time, Democrats have abetted the rise of the unhinged Left at every turn, from communists to cultural wackos, and those preaching revolutionary violence.

"The Democratic Party has become such a big tent these days that unapologetic terror-shilling communist Hasan Piker, who tells his millions of followers to “soak the streets in capitalist blood,” has been invited into the movement by popular personalities on the mainstream Left such as Ezra Klein and Jon Favreau.

"Unsurprising coming from fans of Zohran Mamdani, a devotee of “globalizing the intifada” or, rather, the global violent targeting of Jews. These positions, it seems, only lift your stock on the contemporary Left. Ocasio-Cortez is quickly becoming a centrist in her party.

"At this point, what could a progressive say to be shunned by Democrats? What sin could precipitate the party abandoning a candidate? It’s difficult to think of anything.

"And please, don’t bring up former California gubernatorial candidate Eric Swalwell, who is now dealing with multiple accusations of sexual assault and rape. Democrats lose nothing by abandoning a primary candidate in a deep-blue state.

"Come to think of it, the only offense that could conceivably turn the progressive Left against you is openly supporting Israel, as John Fetterman has found out.

"Otherwise, you’re good."

Another Great Column On Antisemitism, By Eve Barlow 5-1-26

She is commenting on the wave of antisemitic attacks in the UK, but change the location, and it could very well be America.

Even after September 11 when Islamic terrorists killed 3,000 people (the terrorists thought everyone who worked in the WTC was Jewish), nobody wanted to call them what they were because that would be "offensive".  That's when I first heard the fake word "Islamophobia", the excuse that's used whenever a Jew is attacked or killed.

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Keir Starmer, "Jew Harmer".  Name the problem, or you are the problem

Eve Barlow

May 01, 2026

"Let’s cut to the chase. The reason two Jews were stabbed in broad daylight on the streets of London this Wednesday is Islam. The country that defeated the Nazis last century has imported the Islamist incumbents of Nazism without Hitler’s help.

That is what Prime Minister Keir Starmer failed to say yesterday when he made a seven minute address. In seven minutes he did not once identify the perpetrator’s ideology that leads him to walk down the street wielding a knife and looking to hunt as many Jews as he can. The reason is radical Islam. Islam’s hadiths on Jews, Islam’s dhimmi status, Islam’s Jihadist theology. These are all parts of Islam that reformers have struggled with for centuries, despite attempts to deradicalize.

Not every Muslim. But every Islamist. It’s important to know what this distinction means. Unfortunately when lawmakers and governments in Europe and the UK decided to mass import political Islam, they did not understand this. It seems they still don’t understand what even some moderate Muslims have the courage to identify. The UK still hasn’t proscribed the IRGC. The UK still hasn’t banned marches promoting Islamist terror groups. The UK still hasn’t cracked down on universities inviting Islamists to preach to students.

The UK should look to the Emirates to implement legislation on how to discipline itself now. Dubai has figured it out better than London.

In his attempt at performative empathy, Starmer said:

“We need stronger powers to tackle the malign threat posed by states like Iran because we know for a fact that they want to harm British Jews which is why we will fast-track the necessary legislation. And yet the truth is while we can and we will bring the full power of the state to bear on this, this is about society every bit as much as it is about security. At moments like this we often say this is not Britain, that these attacks are an afront to British values, to British tolerance, British decency, but they keep happening.”

Strange because last time I checked, Starmer didn’t want anything to do with America and Israel’s attempts to dismantle the Islamic regime in Iran. I recall him saying categorically: “This is not our war.”

“We will bring the full power of the state to bear on this.” What exactly does that mean? Starmer finally acknowledged that the chants of “globalize the intifada” are extremely “racist”. OK, so have the arrests begun? Maybe start with your colleagues, Sir Keir. I have a long list of academics, human rights lawyers, journalists, etc, who you can arrest. I have screenshots. I kept the receipts. What’s your email? He wants to have more COBRA meetings I guess about this new legislation and security that’s being promised. It’s all words. He’s a human rights lawyer himself after all. They don’t have to tell the truth. They just have to convince you they’re right. Is he right? Does the UK have “stronger powers”?

It’s just words, and these words are far too little, far too late.

Yesterday, Starmer finally showed up in Golders Green like a man arriving at his own funeral. About a hundred furious Jews chanted at him: “Jew harmer! Jew harmer!” It should not be normal the regularity of attempts on Jewish lives in the UK, but it has become so because of Islam. Two men stabbed in broad daylight because they were visibly Jewish. One in his thirties, one in his seventies. A Somalian, Essa Suleiman, with a history of stabbing a policeman and a dog, fresh out of psychiatric care, lunging with a knife while the streets of north London – once a haven – turned into another grim postcard from the new normal. Growing up, Golders Green was one of the safest places to be Jewish. All the young Jews hung out at the famous kosher bakery Carmellis, open 24 hours outside of Shabbat. You never knew who you’d meet or what fun you’d have looking for a bagel at 3am. Innocent times. Absent times.

The ensuing seven-minute address from Starmer spoke often about “antisemitism”. But this isn’t just antisemitism. This is murderous Jew hate. This is Islamist terror. It is the blueprint for Islamism. If you cannot name the problem all the condemnations in the world will not defeat it. He gave the full statesman routine: “an affront to British values,” “open your eyes to Jewish pain,” vows of new powers, more funding, record protections. The script writes itself after the tenth incident. His Home Secretary, Shabana Mahmood, appeared on the BBC yesterday suggesting that what’s needed to combat this is better education in schools to respect Jewish civilians. Shabana, children are not the root of antisemitism. Islamists are.

This isn’t leadership. This is damage control. Where was this urgency when the chants of “globalize the intifada” echoed through London streets for months on end? Where was the steel when synagogues needed ring-fencing, when Jewish schools became fortresses, when Hatzolah ambulances were torched just weeks ago in the same bloody postcode? The Labour Party spent years platforming the very ecosystem that incubated this poison – tolerating the slogans, equivocating on the marches, whispering that maybe the Jews were a bit too loud about their safety. Now the chickens are home to roost with knives, and suddenly it’s a “national emergency.” And they’re still doing it. They’re still providing the PC caveat that British Jews are “not the Israeli government”, not the “tyrannical Netanyahu”, not the “abhorrent IDF”.

Fuck off already. For the millionth time, Israel has a right to exist and defend itself, the British media has been peddling baseless lies about the "Israeli government" for years, most of the "criticisms of Israel" they all are desperate to hold protect the demonization of Israel as the blood-sport of the elite, and Netanyahu is doing a darn sight more to quell the spread of Islamism than any single MP in the entire UK. Soon British people will understand why there are checkpoints in the West Bank, why a wall was erected after the second intifada. Maybe some already do get it.

I focus on the words Starmer didn’t say. Not once did he look the camera dead in the eye and name the beast: Islamist ideology. Not “extremism” in the abstract. Not vague “hate” floating in the ether. Essa Suleiman was imported from the same cultural and religious milieu that has produced wave after wave of this targeted savagery. In 1949, a report was published that there were no Jews left in Somaliland. I don’t wonder why.

Starmer danced around the cause of all this “Jewish pain” with polite euphemisms about “antisemitism” as some ancient, rootless fog. History shows the roots are deep, but this latest blade was sharpened on imported hatreds, groomed in no-go Islamist and leftist echo chambers, and sanctified by sermons that treat Jews as eternal enemies. Starmer condemned the marches and the paraglider selfies. How brave. But he refused to connect the dots to the ideology that fuels the foot soldiers. The same ideology that the Labour party spent years downplaying, importing adherents of by the boatload, and shielding under “Islamophobia” smears whenever anyone dared notice the pattern. Somali communities, grooming gang pipelines, terror referrals piling up – it’s all there in the data his government pretends is coincidental.

Mental health? A convenient fig leaf. Plenty of unwell people don’t hunt Jews with knives in broad daylight. This wasn’t random psychosis; it was ritualistic targeting in a climate where “from the river to the sea” is not only dinner-table talk, but headlining Glastonbury and appearing on every red carpet. Spare us the performative empathy. Jewish communities have been screaming into the void for years while leftists and liberals side tut-tutted about “Islamophobia” and “context” and “root causes.” “Where are the feminists? Where are the anti racists? Where are the left?” cry the begging elitist Jews of the Guardian. They handed him the knife. Stop asking already.

Leftists caused this. Yes Islamism is the imported stink that murders Jews in broad daylight. But never forget that leftists have gilded the Islamists with protection: from the most lauded legal sets in the country to the biggest media outlets to the most elite universities. It’s all just been “criticism of Israel” for years. Leftists have murdered the souls of our Western nations in order to grow their own Instagram followings. I'm a Jewish woman, and I am a Zionist. An Islamist will kill me for the former, while a leftist will pretend the Islamist did it due to the latter.

Antisemitism didn’t arrive yesterday; it grew under a blind eye turned by people who thought “punching up” at the Jews was just a progressive hobby – and who treated any critique of radical Islam as career-ending bigotry. Starmer has ignored all the alarms and is now attempting to use a fire extinguisher once the roof has fallen through. The house is already ash. Trust is gone. Platitudes don’t stop the matches being struck. Define the pattern. Name the firestarter. According to Starmer: this is “about society every bit as much as it is about security.” What is society if it is being rapidly replaced by a society that doesn’t want to assimilate. This isn’t a failure of British tolerance. It is a result of a British tolerance that was exploited by policymakers who opened the doors to ideologies that view tolerance as weakness - and Jews are the first hunted.

Yesterday the terror threat in the UK was raised to “severe”. A UK terror attack is “highly likely” following Golders Green stabbings. I'll be honest. I'm terrified about what will happen in the UK this weekend. Once the initial mandatory "shock" of Jews being stabbed in broad daylight wears off, the pendulum swing from the extremists is going to be violent and unmanageable. The thing that the government is still not identifying is the way this ideology works. It’s an ideology of domination and submission. If there is any loss of ground, it is made up for swiftly.

Understand something. Not a single thing has changed since Wednesday’s stabbings in Golders Green. Not a single ramification for a single person who has contributed to a culture of absolute fear and insecurity for British Jews.

Not a single apology made by a single institution that has created an unlivable reality for a minority community.

Not one moment of reckoning from any media institution, from any human rights organization, from any legal chambers, from any university, from any public individual who has responsibility to ensure that they promote truth. There has been not even a fragment of change in the culture that created a crisis beyond belief in the UK.

I don’t know of a British Jew this week who has found themselves receiving a single missive from a single person who now stands corrected. I don’t know that any of us feel that we suddenly have a place in public life. That the libels poured upon us for years have suddenly been retracted. The character defamation. The abuse. The disposal.

None of us have experienced anything close to the beginnings of a reckoning. And let me be clear: without a full scale reckoning, Britain as it once stood is completely over.

When I left the UK in 2014, my dear friend Tracy-Ann Oberman MBE said to me: “you got out.” I left behind my family, a dream job, friends I never saw again. I’m becoming a US citizen this year. When I walked down my high street this morning, I saw a man wearing a kippah dropping his little girl off at school. It’s a building with the playground on the roof. She said goodbye to her father, and was ushered past the door by a security guard with a gun on his hip."

Melanie Phillips on Antisemitism, 5-1-26

Here's the latest column by Melanie Phillips.  We shouldn't be surprised by the antisemitism she reports on. 

We now have a Democrat candidate, Graham Platner, who has a Nazi tattoo and who admires Hamas, who may very well become the new Senator from Maine.  That the Democrats would endorse such a person proves they have become the party of antisemitism.

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The Palestinian laundromat. Shockingly, the West has framed antisemitism and anti-Zionism as conscience itself

Melanie Phillips, May 01, 2026 

"In America and Britain, political violence and attacks on Jews are becoming normalised and even justified.

"Many have commented on the fact that Cole Tomas Allen, the 31-year-old shooter from California who allegedly set out to kill US President Donald Trump and administration officials at the White House correspondents’ dinner last Saturday evening, parroted the same demonisation of opponents and calls for violence against Trump and his supporters that incessantly emanate from the Democratic Party.

"In videoed street interviews in New York after the attack by Allen, young Americans said they definitely thought political violence was justified as “resistance” or protest because government systems were themselves violent or failing the people. One said that while he felt that Trump wasn’t bad enough to be killed, Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was.

"In London this week, there was yet another attack on British Jews when two men in the heavily Jewish suburb of Golders Green were stabbed. The attacker lunged at an ultra-Orthodox man in his 30s before launching himself at an elderly man at a bus stop who had just put on his kippah. Both men were hospitalised.

"Appallingly, violent attacks on British Jews have now become a regular occurrence. In the past few weeks, synagogues and a Jewish charity have been targeted by arson attacks. Four Hatzola ambulances were firebombed in Golders Green.

"Two congregants were killed last year on Yom Kippur in a terrorist attack on a Manchester synagogue. An ISIS plot to carry out what Greater Manchester Police described as potentially the deadliest terrorist attack in British history, targeting Jewish schools, synagogues and nurseries, was foiled by an undercover operative.

"The stabbing attack in Golders Green has elicited the now-familiar mantra of shock and concern from politicians. The hypocrisy is off the charts.

"Once again, there were ritual incantations that “there’s no place for antisemitism in Britain”. On the contrary, as is all too bitterly apparent, there’s a growing place for antisemitism in Britain.

"British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said he was “deeply concerned” about “the latest in a spate of utterly vile attacks on the Jewish community”.

"Yet he has refused to ban the Muslim Brotherhood. He has failed to ban Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (although the government reportedly now intends to do so). He has refused to take action against jihadi hate preachers who incite murderous hatred of Jews in the mosques. And for the past two and a half years, he has done nothing to stop the hate marches that have taken place every week with chanting for jihad, the destruction of Israel and the murder of Jews.

"What did government ministers, who shed crocodile tears every time British Jews are attacked, think those chants of “Globalise the intifada” actually mean?

"Sir Mark Rowley, the Metropolitan Police Commissioner for London, has said Jews shouldn’t be subjected to this hate. You don’t say.

"Countless demonstrators on the marches that his officers have protected on the grounds of “free speech” have made the inverted v with their fingers, denoting the Hamas call-sign for the murder of Jews. Which part of “murder the Jews” doesn’t Rowley or Starmer understand?

"These rallies, where placards accuse Israel of “genocide” and “apartheid,” have been critical in creating an atmosphere of impunity toward antisemitic attacks.

"Rowley was, however, all too correct in criticising the muted public reaction to the antisemitism now rampant in Britain. Given its nature and scale, one might have expected widespread demands that the government and justice system take effective action to stamp it out.

"Although some individuals have expressed proper revulsion and outrage, there are no widespread demands for something to be done. Instead, there’s a widespread attempt — as there is also in North America, Australia and elsewhere — to cast Israel and Zionism as pariahs.

"This has fuelled an onslaught on diaspora Jews, who are being held collectively responsible for the perceived crimes of Israel. These claims, which are all based on malevolent lies, distortions and mind-twisting inversions of the truth, portray Israelis — and, by extension, all Jews — as evil and demonic.

"This has ripped out the social guardrails that formerly served to corral antisemitism on the fringes of society. The devastating result is that it’s now become mainstream and acceptable. Far from rushing to support diaspora Jews against this onslaught, people in the West are sickeningly — and ludicrously — accusing them of “killing babies in Gaza”.

"Many, if not most, in the West refuse to acknowledge that anti-Zionism is itself a murderous creed. Instead, they promote it.

"Starmer, like his Canadian and Australian counterparts Mark Carney and Anthony Albanese, has promoted the demonisation of Israel through spreading boilerplate lies about its behaviour.

"Unforgivably, his government falsely accused Israel of wantonly killing Gazan civilians and depriving them of food and other essentials, in direct contradiction of the facts; stopped some arms sales to Israel as punishment for its war to defend itself against genocide; and even rewarded Hamas by recognising the fictitious “state of Palestine”.

"Virulent anti-Zionism and demonisation of Israel have laundered antisemitism and Islamisation. And the laundromat has been the Palestinian cause.

"Support for the Palestinians is the motif of the progressive West, the issue that stands proxy for conscience and idealism.

"But the Palestinian cause and the fictitious Palestinian identity that underpins it are devoted to the destruction of Israel and the theft of the Jews’ own ancestral history in the land. Far from being moral, it’s an evil cause.

"The stock-in-trade of the Palestinian Arabs is to project their own crimes onto the Jews and to accuse the Jews in turn of committing atrocities of which they have, in fact, been the victims.

"Accordingly, the Palestinian Arabs have been accusing Israel for decades of committing genocide, causing a Holocaust and acting like Nazis.

"So it’s not surprising that those in the West who have adopted the Palestinian cause as the acme of righteousness are themselves using precisely these vile terms about Israel and its supporters.

"Everyone who has perpetrated these lies and supports this cause is an accessory to murderous violence against Jews. But the baleful impact of this has been even wider and deeper than merely stoking such attacks.

"Horrifyingly, anti-Zionism and antisemitism have become so deeply ingrained in the West as an unchallenged narrative presenting Israel as the fount of all evil that they’ve developed into a belief system that defines an individual’s moral identity.

"This has been made possible through the decades-long erosion of the West’s historic culture and the moral precepts on which it was constructed. That cultural attrition has replaced objective truth by feelings and emotion, with morality being reframed as “anything that offends me”.

"The values of the Western nation, which have been deemed illegitimate because of colonialism, oppression and “whiteness,” are said to be superseded by universal laws and trans-national institutions such as the United Nations, human rights law, the international courts and the big NGOs such as Amnesty International or Save the Children.

"However, because such trans-national bodies are dominated by dictatorships and fanatical Islamic regimes that hate Jews and Judaism alongside their left-wing Western acolytes, this entire humanitarian infrastructure has been fashioned into a weapon against the existence of Israel.

"For the post-religious West, though, this infrastructure is assumed to embody the ideal of the brotherhood of man. It’s therefore become a kind of priesthood administering the secular religion of human rights.

"The shocking outcome, therefore, is that the West has framed antisemitism and anti-Zionism as conscience itself. Western conscience has thus been enlisted in the service of evil.

"Small wonder that Jews and all decent people feel as if they’re now inhabiting a looking-glass world where truth and lies, right and wrong, victim and aggressor have all been reversed.

"With the Western mind already spinning crazily from the onslaught on truth and core biblical values, making it vulnerable to progressive Islamisation, the Palestine cause has delivered a definitive blow to its moral compass.

"Diaspora Jews won’t be safe — and nor will anyone else — unless the West disentangles itself from this morass and returns to the core values of the civilisation that it has so tragically tossed aside."

It's Not 'Mental Illness'. It's Deliberate Anti-Jewish Violence - To Kill Us.

I'm so sick and tired of hearing the usual excuses. These attacks on the Jewish people are by people who want to kill us, thanks to the continual anti-Jewish/anti-Israel rhetoric and actions.  This is how the Holocaust started, with attacks on property, synagogues, and individuals.

Just as the constant anti-Trump rhetoric has resulted in assassination attempts against Donald Trump, so has the anti-Israel vitriol (and even the 10/7  massacre of Israelis) resulted in attacks and killings against Jews. Both things are always downplayed  and excused away, with more sympathy for the attackers than for the victims. Even after Bondi Beach, nothing has changed.

Wake up before it's too late.

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Here's Brendan O'Neill at Spiked 4-30-26:

Anti-Zionism is a menace to every Jew on Earth. The stabbing in Golders Green was a violent expression of the transatlantic ideology of Israelophobia. 

and read about this frightening antisemitic attack of a Jewish man in Los Angeles:

‘Thought it was end of my life,’ says Jewish man attacked near Los Angeles synagogue
“People shouldn’t think that, ‘Oh this is not going to happen to me,’” the 32-year-old Judaic studies teacher told JNS. “It can happen to anyone walking the streets, anyone with their groceries.”

By Aaron Bandler at JNS, Apr. 29, 2026

( Apr. 29, 2026 / JNS )

A 32-year-old Jewish man, who was attacked on Monday evening near left Adas Torah, an Orthodox synagogue in Los Angeles, told JNS that his life flashed before his eyes.

“I don’t know if he said the words, ‘I want to kill you,’ but his facial expression and his attitude definitely gave that message,” said the victim, who spoke to JNS on the condition that he not be named. “I thought it was the end of my life.”

The victim, who said he is a Judaic studies teacher and “just a regular person,” told JNS that “I never would have thought such an incident would happen to me.”

After studying at Merkaz Hatorah Community Kollel, around the corner from the synagogue, on Monday evening, he walked home through an alleyway, as he has done for the past five years, and noticed a blue minivan following slowly beside him. He said he was wearing a kippah at the time.

He made a “Hey, how are you” facial expression toward the driver, whom he described as a black man. The driver made the same expression in response, the victim told JNS.

“All of a sudden, he just opens the door,” he said. “I don’t know what he was saying. He pounced me, immediately put his hands over my neck, shaking me back and forth, trying to choke me.”

The man used “a window breaker or window chiseler, I don’t know what you call it” as “a weapon as he was choking me against my neck,” the victim told JNS.

“He pinned me to the corner, and I don’t even know how, I just see I’m rolling on the floor, and as I’m vulnerable on the floor,” the victim said. “He gives me a stare and he says, ‘free Palestine’ and he goes back to his car.”

“I just ran back to safety, try to find a friend in the kollel, go into his car and call the cops from there,” he told JNS. He added that since the attack, it has been “definitely harder to walk alone.”

“You take your regular daily walk for granted, which you think should be fine and safe,” he said. “Now it’s a little bit hard to walk to shul.”

He added that the incident shows that “this can happen to anybody.”

“People shouldn’t think that, ‘Oh this is not going to happen to me,’” the victim told JNS. “It can happen to anyone walking the streets, anyone with their groceries, anyone. Anyone going anywhere.”

The incident has made the victim more motivated to be “100 times more effective” in teaching the next Jewish generation on “what it means to be Jewish” and “how we should always be proud to be Jewish,” he told JNS.

Ron Galperin, interim Los Angeles regional director at the American Jewish Committee, told JNS that “we are outraged by the reports of an assault Monday night near Adas Torah Synagogue in the Pico-Robertson neighborhood.”

“While facts are still emerging, the details known so far are deeply concerning,” he said. “From what we’ve learned so far, this attack was not an isolated act of violence. It reflects a troubling pattern: the normalization of antisemitic behavior in our communities. No one should be targeted or attacked because they are Jewish. Period.”

The attack occurred in the district of Katy Yaroslavsky, a member of the Los Angeles City Council and a Democrat, who is Jewish.

“Last night, an individual assaulted a man leaving Adas Torah Synagogue in Pico-Robertson. According to preliminary information, the suspect approached the victim, attacked him and fled the scene while shouting antisemitic remarks,” she told JNS. “The victim received medical attention and is recovering. LAPD has informed our office that this is being investigated as a hate crime.”

“Hate incidents and hate crimes in Los Angeles have increased significantly over the past several years. When hate speech targeting Jewish communities increases and becomes normalized, violence against our community follows,” Yaroslavsky told JNS. “This pattern has existed for thousands of years, and we need to call it out directly for what it is. Antisemitism has no place in Los Angeles, and I call on my colleagues and fellow community leaders to condemn this violence, protect the freedom to worship and stand with Jewish Angelenos.”

This Nasal Spray Helps With COVID Symptoms

This is good to know!  I looked it up and discovered that the nasal spray azelastine is sold at CVS as Astepro for under $25.00.

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Prevention Magazine, 4-29-26 

Scientists Say This Surprising OTC Medication Lowers Your Risk of COVID. It may shorten how long you’re sick, too. 

• The over-the-counter nasal spray azelastine may reduce your risk of COVID-19, according to one study.
• Azelastine may also shorten how long you’re sick and reduce your risk of other viruses like the common cold.
• Doctors explain how it works, plus whether you should try it during COVID season.

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While staying up to date with your vaccines, regular hand-washing, and avoiding crowds or wearing a mask in crowded settings can all help protect you from viruses like COVID-19, scientists continue to look for other strategies and treatments that can help keep you healthy. One study, for instance, found a surprising link between the nasal spray azelastine and COVID risk. Read on to discover what the researchers found, plus how to apply their findings to your healthy routine.

According to a phase 2 clinical trial published in JAMA, using azelastine (an antihistamine nasal spray used to treat allergy symptoms and sold under the brand name Astepro Allergy) may help fend off COVID-19 and the common cold. For the randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled study, researchers recruited 450 healthy volunteers in Germany. Of those, more than 99% had received the COVID-19 vaccine at least once.

The participants were split into two groups: One used an azelastine nasal spray in each nostril at least three times a day for about 56 days. The other used a placebo spray. Everyone was tested for COVID-19 twice a week.

The researchers discovered that people in the azelastine group were about three times less likely to contract COVID-19 compared to those in the placebo group. Ultimately, just five people in the azelastine group (or 2.2%) tested positive for the virus, while 15 (6.7%) tested positive in the placebo group. People in the azelastine group also had a positive test for less time than their placebo-using counterparts (3.4 days compared to 5.14 days).

It doesn’t stop there: People in the azelastine group were also less likely to get any type of virus, including the common cold. The researchers discovered that only 8.4% of people in the azelastine group contracted a virus compared to 18.8% in the placebo group. The azelastine users reported only being sick for 1.73 days compared to 2.75 days in the placebo group.

Those are some pretty impressive findings, and it’s not the only data to suggest that azelastine may help lower your risk of getting sick. While doctors say azelastine may be a promising option to lower your risk of COVID, they want you to keep a few things in mind before running to your local pharmacy to stock up.

How does azelastine help prevent COVID and the common cold?

This study simply found a connection between using azelastine and a lowered risk of getting COVID-19 and other viruses—it didn’t determine an exact reason for this. But doctors say there could be a few things behind this.

For allergies, azelastine works by blocking histamine, a substance in the body that causes allergy symptoms, explained Jamie Alan, Pharm.D., Ph.D., an associate professor of pharmacology and toxicology at Michigan State University. “This is an antihistamine similar to Claritin or Zyrtec,” she said. “Azelastine is found typically in nasal sprays and eye drops.”

Azelastine also interferes with the function of proteins in viruses, making them less likely to be able to infect you, said Amesh A. Adalja, M.D., an assistant professor at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

It seems to be able to inhibit the H2 receptor—a type of histamine receptor—which may impact how well a virus is able to get into your cells, explained Thomas Russo, M.D., a professor and chief of infectious diseases at the University at Buffalo in New York. “It appears to block viral attachments and maybe even moderate the immune response,” he said.

Inflammation may be a factor, too, Alan said. “I hypothesize that by using a nasal antihistamine, it would reduce the local response in the upper respiratory system, and therefore would reduce the local inflammation,” she said. “By reducing the local inflammation, it would be theoretically harder for a virus to attach and infect the upper respiratory system.”

Azelastine was first explored as a potential treatment for COVID-19 earlier on in the pandemic. There is some research to suggest azelastine may bind to a receptor that SARS-CoV-2 uses to access your cells, and it also may reduce viral load in your nasal passages. There’s other datato suggest that azelastine may also work against other viruses, including RSV and the flu.

Potential side effects of azelastine

While azelastine is considered a safe medication and is designed for long-term use, it comes with a risk of potential side effects. According to the National Library of Medicine, those may include:

• Bitter taste
• Nasal burning, pain, or discomfort
• Sneezing, runny nose
• Headache
• Sore throat
• Dry mouth
• Nosebleeds
• Dizziness
• Nausea
• Tiredness

Participants in both groups had side effects, but they were more common in the azelastine group. Those included bitter taste, nosebleeds (not many, but in 6.6% of the azelastine group compared to 4% of the placebo group), and fatigue.

Should you use azelastine to help lower your risk of COVID?

Doctors agree that azelastine may be helpful in lowering your risk of COVID—but more research is needed. “This is a phase 2 clinical trial, so the intervention will need more study before it can be confirmed as an effective prophylactic,” Dr. Adalja said.

But azelastine “does seem to have some antiviral properties,” said William Schaffner, M.D., an infectious disease specialist and professor at the Vanderbilt University School of Medicine. “Who knows? You might reduce your risk of RSV and influenza as well,” he said. “There seems to be no risk to using the medications.”

Alan agreed, noting that there’s likely no harm to using azelastine as long as you’re not allergic to any of the ingredients in the nasal spray.

But Dr. Russo pointed out that it’s tricky to use a nasal spray several times a day. “The data suggest that if you use this three to five times a day, it may be similar to decreasing the likelihood of contracting COVID as getting the vaccine,” he said. “But it’s really hard to take a medication once a day, let alone five times a day.” For many people, it’s ultimately easier—and cheaper—to just get the vaccine, he said.

Dr. Schaffner agreed. “Getting people to be compliant with this over the entire COVID season is substantial,” he said.

That said, Dr. Russo noted that there may be some benefit in using azelastine before a big event. “You may think, ‘I’m going to a wedding and it’s going to be a high-risk situation.’ So, you might start taking this a few days beforehand and a few days afterward as extra protection,” he said.

As there’s no data comparing azelastine to more traditional methods of preventing COVID-19, like getting the vaccine and wearing masks, doctors recommend doing those first. “This should not be a substitute for vaccination,” Dr. Schaffner said.

Dr. Adalja agreed. “In the best-case scenario, it will likely have a complementary role to vaccines—especially if shown to block infection, which vaccines against COVID are not able to do durably—and possibly provide protection against viruses for which there are no vaccines,” he said. But ultimately, doctors say that more research is needed first.