If anyone ever does discover a cure for the common cold, he or she will be a shoo-in for a Nobel Prize. Not only are colds enormously costly--$10 billion annually in lost wages and productivity in the U.S. alone--but they're almost impossible to prevent. Colds are caused by hundreds of different viruses from several major viral families, virtually ruling out the possibility of a single, one-shot-stops-all vaccine. Treatment is further complicated because the disease is a moving target. Rhinoviruses, which account for about 40% of all colds, attack mainly in the fall and spring; other cold-causing microbes, such as the respiratory...
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