Fiascos
-------

Well, the flu fiasco of all time has to be the Swine Flu Vaccine fiasco
of 1976.  Scientists had become worried that we were going to have an
epidemic of a new strain of flu from swine.  The Federal Government
instituted a crash program to vaccinate everybody in America.  In the
end, the feared epidemic never happened at all, and as it turned out,
hundreds of Americans were killed or severely injured from the
side-effects of the vaccine.

http://www.capitalcentury.com/1976.html

Even for the yearly flu shot that is given regularly as a standard
procedure, a tiny minority of folks do get nasty side effects.  I
developed chronic sinusitis for the very first time in my life only
*five hours* after I got a flu shot in September 1993.  I don't think
that is a coincidence.  I've had chronic sinusitis ever since, despite
two surgeries.

Another thing we learned only in the last few decades has been that
children should not take aspirin for the treatment of colds and flu.
Aspirin during a viral illness has been linked to the onset of Reye's
Syndrome in children.  But when I was a kid, no one knew that yet.
Millions of parents gave their children St. Joseph's Aspirin for
Children, a popular brand of children's aspirin back then, whenever
their children had a fever from a cold or flu.  My mom used to give me
Empirin, a compound of aspirin, phenacetin and caffeine.

Failures
--------

The list of claimed folk cures for colds that careful scientific studies
have failed to find effective is long and keeps getting longer.  Here
are only a few of the things that careful double-blind scientific
studies have found no benefit from:

Vitamin C
Echinacea
Avoiding cold air
Avoiding getting wet in a rainstorm

Triumphs
--------

By 1970, the biggest triumph of dealing with colds (but not flu) was the
recognition that colds (but not flu) are spread mostly by large-droplet
infection, more often than not carried on the hands of a cold sufferer
or on objects he has handled.  Thus regular handwashing and keeping your
hands away from your nose and eyes can keep lots of cold viruses out of
your respiratory tract.  Knowing this can cut down dramatically on how
many colds you get--if people followed the advice.  (Unfortunately, they
don't.  The next time you're in a supermarket or other public building,
notice how many people instinctively rub their noses or eyes with their
bare unwashed hands.)  Flu seems to be spread mostly by small-droplet
infection--droplets that remain suspended in the atmosphere for long
periods of time--thus handwashing isn't as effective in preventing flu.

Studies have now shown that the half-life of cold viruses is roughly 75
minutes after the secretions have dried, and the drying of secretions
has already killed some 95% of cold viruses.  Thus if a cold sufferer
has just sneezed on an object, it may be safe for you to handle it after
about one day has elapsed (that's a reduction factor of around 20 x
2^19).  Studies have also shown pretty conclusively that Lysol
Disinfectant can kill 99.8% of cold viruses, which can make an object
safer to handle in a shorter period of time.  Clorox Bleach kills some
97% of cold viruses.

And while flu shots have caused side effects for a few folks, for anyone
who is at serious risk (the elderly, asthmatics, etc.), flu shots have
definitely been of major benefit.  Flu and asthma do NOT mix.