We are currently experiencing the realities of the most severe pandemic within living memory, with major impacts on the health and economic well-being of our planet. The scientific community has demonstrated an unprecedented mobilization capability, with the rapid development of vaccines and drugs targeting the protection of human life and palliative measures for infected individuals. However, are we adequately prepared for ongoing defense against COVID-19 and its variants in the post-pandemic world? Moreover, are we equipped to provide a satisfactory quality of life for individuals who are recovering from COVID-19 disease? What are the possibilities for the acceleration of the recovery process? Here, we give special consideration to the potential and already-demonstrated role of probiotics and traditional medical approaches to the management of current and potential future encounters with our major virus adversaries.
Keywords: Antimicrobial peptides; Bacteriocins; Coronavirus disease-19 (COVID-19); Lactic acid bacteria; Probiotics; Traditional medicine.
© 2021. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature.