The common cold.

When we have the common cold we shed tears because of how it makes us feel, we sneeze, we spread germs to other people, our nose bothers us, and, it makes our life worse. One of the ways that the US government could keep the population under its control would be to spread the common cold among the general population and recall all cures for the common cold so that we would not recover from it. Could the common cold be used to keep the population under control?

Your thread is right on time for me. I have been ill for 3 weeks with a cold. It has made me feel worn out and miserable.

I finally went to the doctor yesterday and was given a strong elixir and steroids. Also was given an antibiotic as a precaution. Didn't want the antibiotic because a cold is a virus and antibiotics don't cure colds.

Yes colds could cause big problems if they would not go away. My nose and top lip are raw from wiping. Haven't felt like cooking or going out for food.

The medicine is making me feel better already.

I don't think this would be very effective. I had a cold a few months ago, did not get any medical treatment, and was fine a few weeks later. (I should also point out that I am a smoker, and coughs always last longer with me than they would a non-smoker). Reason 15,734 to quit.

If you are referring to a flu, that may be a different story. I also got a flu bug a couple weeks ago, again did not take anything for it, and was fine after about a week. However, the flu is much more serious when a child or elderly person has it. And there was a doctor on MSNBC Monday morning talking about that while this year's flu shot does not cover 40% of the flu bugs we are seeing this year, it does cover the medically-resistant bugs (superbugs??) hospitals and doctors have seen this year. In other words, the bugs that are not responding to medicine are covered by the flu shot, and are included in the 60% of flus being reposrted this season. His advice was to get a flu shot.

I have heard enough about the flu shot to say that I would rather take my chances with the flu than what is in those shots.

[edit on 2/20/2008 by GetOutOfMyRabbitHole]

There are NO cures (that i am aware of, at least) to common cold. Immune system has to do all the fighting by itself (sometimes problems arise because of its over reacting).
All medications are there to treat the symptoms, or to treat this over reaction by our own body. If these medications are somehow all withdrawn in a blink of an eye, there are natural remedies which are less pleasant and less effective, but easily affordable.

I would have to say no.

I've never sought treatment or medicine for a cold, perhaps some lozenges for the sore throat symptoms but thats about it, and usually manage to fight it off naturally within a week or so.

There are plenty of alternative natural remedies that can be almost as effective as over the counter ones.

Being healthy and ensuring your immune system is up to the job is more important IMO.

The common cold, yes. Most of the medicines available are just to relieve the symptoms.

It is caused by virus. The problem is that the cold virus mutates so the virus that you got today may not be the same that you will get the next time you get a cold. You acquire antibodies to a certain cold that you already had but not to the new ones that are still mutating. That is the tricky part with cold virus. You'll never know what you are going to get.

Since it's viral, I don't see the reason for taking antibiotics unless you are suffering from other bacterial infection.

Hay fever, seasonal allergy can be sometimes mistaken for colds.

For the conspiracy part, if someone can invent a freak cold virus that can kill people, then it can be spread as casual as cold, then I can say that we are screwed.
[edit on 20-2-2008 by searching_for_truth]

[edit on 20-2-2008 by searching_for_truth]

Blow your nose instead of sniffing and snorting, don't go hungry for too long, keep warm, get plenty of exercise, keep your hands clean and try to stay happy. Follow these simple rules and you will rarely catch a common cold. It works for me. The government will have to do better than that to keep me under control mwahahaha!

the cold is caused by a virus... there are no drugs to get rid of viruses AKA the common cold. so the worst the government could do by removing all remedies would be that people would have to put up with the headaches rather than having things to help the symptoms

reply to post by haggis08


Even that wouldn't be that big of a deal because there would still be home remedies.

[edit on 20-2-2008 by chromatico]