Independent of its antibiotic mechanism, minocycline can inhibit toxic microglia (M1) and activate neuroprotective microglia (M2), which leads to suppression of NF-κβ activity, consequently preventing the production of pro-inflammatory cytokines——these are responsible for extreme acute respiratory distress symptom in patients with COVID19 (Zhao et al., 2015; Alam et al., 2016). The gene discussed is NFKB1; the disease is COVID-19.