(Edit: See update comment below)
I emailed Sarah Constantin about this question. I didn't end up hiring her (my parents decided they didn't want to take supplements--luckily they're working from home now), but she did say:
BTW, the apparent "contradiction" isn't really one. Immunostimulants, taken when healthy, reduce the incidence of respiratory tract infections; once you get an infection like COVID-19, the immune response often gets so strong it kills you.
So I think taking immunostimulants on an ongoing basis is a good idea, but you should stop if you think you might be infected with COVID-19.
My aging parents live in Santa Clara County and have a relatively fatalistic attitude towards COVID-19 exposure. But they seem open to taking supplements. So I'm trying to figure out what to recommend.
This 2017 post from Sarah Constantin on the prevention of respiratory tract infections says, among other things:
However, this article from National Geographic implies that COVID-19 may kill through immune hyper-reactivity:
This suggests just the opposite: that you want to suppress the immune system, not boost it.
I remembered reading somewhere that immunocompromised populations have a greater mortality rate from COVID-19. If true, this suggests that immunosuppression could be harmful? I tried to figure out whether the immunocompromise claim is based in fact or not. The recent WHO report states:
It's not clear how I should interpret these figures. For example, quick online research seems to indicate that diabetic subjects are more susceptible to infections (suggesting immunocompromise) but also that diabetes (esp. Type 1) could be considered an autoimmune disease (so higher mortality among diabetics could be due to the immune system attacking the body even harder than normal).
In any case, my extremely preliminary guess is you should take immunostimulants (with a short half-life) on an ongoing basis in order to try & prevent COVID-19 infection. And if you get it, hopefully your case is one of the ~82% which doesn't ever progress beyond mild symptoms. BUT you should prefer immunosuppressants if your case is reaching the immune hyper-reactivity stage (phase 2 from the National Geographic article). However, I wish someone who actually knows about this stuff would check my work, and I welcome any critiques.