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Can This New Treatment Stop the Common Cold? (fortune.com)
"Researchers may have identified a compound that can stop some of the most common cold viruses, the rhinovirus, in its tracks, according to a new report published in the journal Nature." An anonymous reader quotes Fortune:
The scientists' work is early-stage. But the mechanism it uses to tackle colds is striking. Developed at the Imperial College London, the molecule targets a protein in human cells that cold viruses use in order to replicate and conquer. By targeting this specific pathway, the compound could theoretically be used to thwart most viruses (and since it focuses on human proteins, it may not cause the virus to mutate its way away from danger)...
"The common cold is an inconvenience for most of us, but can cause serious complications in people with conditions like asthma and [chronic lung disease]," said lead researcher Ed Tate in a statement. "A drug like this could be extremely beneficial if given early in infection, and we are working on making a version that could be inhaled, so that it gets to the lungs quickly."
"The common cold is an inconvenience for most of us, but can cause serious complications in people with conditions like asthma and [chronic lung disease]," said lead researcher Ed Tate in a statement. "A drug like this could be extremely beneficial if given early in infection, and we are working on making a version that could be inhaled, so that it gets to the lungs quickly."
"A drug like this could be extremely beneficial if given early in infection, and we are working on making a version that could be inhaled, so that it gets to the lungs quickly."
Just spray all the big cities with crop dusters. What could possibly go wrong?
After which the virus will find another way to infiltrate human cells. It's hard to win a race against something that has a 200,000 year head start.
But we are getting better at it, which a couple completely eliminated and many more on their way to eradication.
Browsing at +1 - no ACs, I ignore their posts. So refreshing!
Whatch the anti-vaxer-like morons who'll soon claim that this causes autism. There will be lectures, a youtube channel, a patreon account, and they'll make a fortune once again with the stupidity of the general population.
How do people not know Mr. Betteridge by now?
Anons need not reply. Questions end with a question mark.
Question headlines contribute to the normalization of clickbait and many people instantly distrust them
Just tell us please
Could the common cold and influenza be eradicated if everyone on earth just spent a week quarantining themselves?
Or do the viruses move among animal populations as well?
That a couple of the biggest flu strains are called "bird flu", what do you think?
A big problem is that many viral diseases are endemic to animal populations, and require minimal mutations that happen all the time[*] to jump to humans. They never survive long in humans, because they are too aggressive - both killing the host and being killed by the host is bad from the virus' perspective. Being able to infect and spread without doing much damage to the host is a much better survival mechanism, and what happens with most endemic diseases. For the host, it can even be beneficial to have an infection that doesn't cause harm, but out-competes similar infections that would.
[*]: In part due to the rapid reproduction cycle, and in part because viruses lack the DNA repair mechanisms that more advanced species have.
About 18 or so years ago they discovered that zinc prevents viruses from being able to attach to the cells along your mucous membranes and thus stops their ability to replicate. Immediately after, entire cities sold out of it and Zicam got rich. It actually does work.
It's think it's quite well-known that things just aren't this simple.
1) The common cold is really several hundred different types of the same thing. You can't cure them all, and if you try, another few will pop up.
2) Though the summary mention asthmatics, etc., the common cold is pretty much not worth treating. Go away, take some tissue, it'll be gone in a day or so. Thus treating it is really a waste of time.
3) Almost all cold remedies are "over the counter", not "prescription". It's just not worth treating unless it gets more serious. This means people are WILLING TO PAY and the things they are paying for are pretty much USELESS. They relieve symptoms, not cure it. And that's if you're lucky. Many are no better than placebo.
4) Because of this, they are a huge source of income - cheap and easy to make and regulate, people buy them all the time and use them for every single cold, and do so VOLUNTARILY. No doctor is prescribing them, nor an insurance company covering their purchase (at least in a sensible country).
5) By "curing" the common cold, you are then taking away a LOT of easy money for the pharmaceutical industry, which people choose to pay VOLUNTARILY, for no real good reason, every time they have a cold, which helps - but also hurts - nobody. When that revenue stream dries up, guess what? They'll move to something else or up their prices on other things.
Paying for cold remedies funds your cancer drugs, in part. But you don't have to pay that. You choose to. For placebos and the equivalent of some honey in hot water. It's a stupid thing to do, the remedies literally do nothing worth doing, and they are perpetually present in the population - by the time you are symptomatic, you've already got it from and given it to everyone else.
In that kind of environment, a cure is a nonsense. You'll just force something that's almost completely benign to mutate, and it'll do so very quickly given the number of strains, the transmission rates and the tiny amount of contact required to catch them. And you couldn't cure them all.
Nobody of normal health loses even a day of work to a cold over their lifetime. (Flu, etc., are VERY different beasts).
I speak as someone who DOES NOT medicate with anything non-prescription. I don't take headache tablets, indigestion tablets, cold remedies or anything else. I have literally bought one of each to keep in my bathroom cabinet for guests... they will likely be thrown out unopened when people comment that they look like they are out of the Ark.
Those things cure themselves, or they have simple remedies that don't even need anything beyond what's already in your kitchen.
But people willingly paying for those placebos are paying profits to a pharmaceutical company that would make up for them elsewhere. On things you DON'T want to make people pay extra for. Like asthma inhalers, and insulin testing kits, and so on. Things that are very common, quite cheap to make and not very dangerous so don't require a ton of testing.
Curing the common cold will just give you worse colds that are harder to cure, and more expensive medication. That's pretty much why none of the big pharmaceutical firms have bothered to do it.