As a child I had a number of ear infections with respiratory disease. Fifty years ago I tried to prevent such infections in my 2 little sons. I would mix a crushed 500 mg. C tablet, a spoonful of honey, and 1/4 tsp. of garlic powder in an 8 oz baby bottle filled with water, shake well and leave in their crib to drink at night when they woke or started to cough. [NOTE; never give unpasturized honey to a baby under 1 year] They never had an ear infection. Below is a quote from the link at comment #13 (I think) that shows my instincts were right on.
“Profound, in vitro antiviral activity of a mixture of natural honey, ginger and garlic extracts against various strains of influenza virus was observed, moreover they showed in their study that this mixture promotes the proliferation of human lymphocytes (Vahed & Batool Jafri 2016).”
Another handy trick, especially for a general emergency is using an orange or lemon to make penecillin. If you let the fruit develop green mold, that is penecillin. I have rubbed this mold on minor scratches and sores, and it works well. Apparently the acidic aspect of the fruit prevents alkaline type molds from developing. I think I saw somewhere that infections are usually alkaline in nature.
I got ear infections as an adult while living in one specific house. None before and none after. I suspect there was some nasty something growing in the water pipes and it came out in the shower. It is expensive to move, but a lot less expensive than getting worse and dying.