“Doctor McCoy, you may just find a cure for the Common Cold yet!”

Well, as we know, Science Fiction is anything but fiction. (“WHAT Zulu????”) Star Trek; The Original Series (or Those Old Scientists for Strange New World Fans), based 300 years in the future tells us there is no cure for the common cold, so, it must be true.

Having had 3 massive colds in the last 9 months, I have been contemplating a lot about the “Common Cold,” and making a few observations; because that’s what we do.

The market size, measured by revenue, of the Cough & Cold Medicine Manufacturing for Over The Counter drugs in the United States was $12.0bn for the year 2023. As shocking as this is, this is hardly news as the public has been aware of these increasing numbers for many years. As many of us also know, these OTC drugs don’t actually “cure” the common cold, they only “relieve” the symptoms (JM; did I use those shock quotation marks correctly?).

Of course, these recent statistics don’t include Over The Counter Bleach sales for those uneducated medical geniuses who obviously know more than the primary Medical Doctor in charge of COVID research. Believing COVID was just like the common cold, they either drank bleach, or some bleach concoction that they bought off the Internet after 3 minutes of exhausting, life-dedicating research.

My cold tolerances can be summed up like this; I invite people over to my house for dinner in the winter. Being hyper-observant, I notice people seem cold at the table. I apologize and tell them I had turned up the heat prior to their arrival as I walk over to check the thermostat and realize that I did indeed turn up the heat, but only from 50 Degrees Fahrenheit, to 55. Whoops. Not to be included in with the foolish researchers in the previous paragraph, but I have spoken to doctors and read articles; in print and on the “Internet,” that say “Cold does not cause Colds.” It’s a virus, and the strain of it is constantly changing. My 55 degree house seems to be on the healthy-far away side of my bouts of sickness.

Being a professional technician in my personal life, I am often faced with with the scientific dilemma of “The Chicken or the Egg,” which in technical reality falls to the Cause and Effect Syndrome . Which came first. Using this , I ask myself, “did I get cold and then got a cold, or did I contact a virus and then became cold because of it? I can trace the last 3 colds to 3 instances. 1. Sleeping too close to a hotel room air conditioning unit for 3 nights, working for a week in a very cold industrial space in December, and finally sitting at a desk for 10 hours a day in a very large and cold warehouse space.

I don’t have enough research or empirical data to back up my claims, but I also can not ignore the old axiom; “listen to what your body is telling you.”

Why increase the profits to $13 Billion?