The Difficult Cold

Though man must take full responsibility for physical and chemical pollution of the air (see above), he can hardly be blamed for the viruses he inhales. He cannot help catching the common cold, grippe, influenza, and related viral diseases. Nor can he expect much help from the medical profession. At the A.M.A.'s clinical meeting, Dr. Edward L. Buescher of the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research made no secret of the doctors' slim chance of success in the search for cures or preventives.

Some viruses, notably those of influenza, produce variants without warning.

Even if new variants are spotted promptly and pharmaceutical companies put on a crash program, it still takes four to six months to produce a vaccine. By then, an epidemic may have run its course. And the vaccines now in use are of such dubious potency that they have protected only a disheartening 50% of Army recruits. Making the vaccines more potent is probably not the answer; there would be a greater risk of more severe reactions to the inoculations themselves.

It is now clear that scores of different kinds of viruses cause common colds and grippelike illnesses. To prepare a vaccine against a specific virus, or a small group of viruses, is meaningless in the face of such numbers. What medicine needs, said Dr. Buescher, is a new approach. "When are we going to get off our duff and look at the problem as a whole, rather than in terms of specific viruses?" he demanded. Nobody answered. The common cold seemed as secure as ever.

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