Well, it’s cold season again, and although I have been surrounded by people who were coughing and sneezing their heads off for several weeks, I had thus far managed to avoid the irritating little virus until today.
I began the day with that tell-tale scratchy throat and the occasional sneeze that almost always goes along with it, and by early afternoon it had developed into a hacking cough and all the other cold symptoms we have learned to dread so much. Colds are rarely life-threatening, but man are they miserable!
I have often wondered why we humans have managed to wipe out leprosy, polio, and a number of other once-dreaded diseases in most parts of the world, yet we seem completely unable to control the lowly cold virus. There are dozens of over-the-counter medications that can help ease the symptoms, but not one of them can actually cure a cold or prevent us from catching one in the first place.
I believe that some day the common cold will be little more than a footnote in history, but until then I guess we’ll just have to keep spending our money on cough drops and sinus pills.