Antiviral drugs are not antibiotics. Antibiotics are produced by microorganisms that have the ability to fight pathogenic bacteria, inhibit metabolites, and finally this class of substances that were able to be discovered by researchers and developers to be used to carry out the killing of other bacteria, which is why it is called an antimicrobial. Later it was discovered that this class of antimicrobials can also kill other microorganisms, including the ability to kill molds, mycoplasma, chlamydia, spirochetes, and so on. So the connotation of the word antimicrobial became less applicable and it was changed to antibiotic. The connotations of the words antimicrobial and antibiotic are distinctly different, but the extents to which they refer are the same. They both refer to the same class of drugs, including drugs like penicillin and gentamicin, which are capable of interfering with and stopping and killing other microorganisms. But antibiotics again have a more precise meaning than antimicrobials. Antibiotics commonly used in modern medicine are synthetic chemicals that are chemically and semi-synthesized, as well as those obtained by genetic engineering. However, antibiotics do not directly kill or inhibit viruses, so they are not antivirals. Antivirals are drugs used to inhibit the growth of viruses and are not metabolites of microorganisms. Antiviral drugs include vaccines, antibodies, nucleotides, interferons, and natural products. Their mechanism of action and drug effects are different from antibiotics. Antibiotics kill microorganisms, but antiviral drugs can only prevent or inhibit viral growth. Vaccines, for example, stimulate the body’s immune system to produce antibodies, thereby controlling the growth and reproduction of the virus. Antibodies are directly bound to virus particles to inhibit viral growth and reproduction, while nucleotides interfere with viral DNA and RNA synthesis. Therefore, in terms of mechanism of action, antivirals are also not antibiotics.