(Eli5)How is there no cure for common colds?
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Common cold isn’t a single disease. It’s a bunch of different virus infections.
Finding a cure wouldn’t really be worth it, because it would only work against one of the hundreds of different colds (at least 200 strains identified), it would cost a lot of money, and you’d propably have to get vaccinated before you got infected. (And colds are much lower priority than anything that can cause lifelong issues)
Also those viruses are changing all the time, the vaccine wouldn’t work anymore after a few years (just like the flu shot it would have to be reinvented every year, but that’s considered worth it because the flu actually kills people)
Common colds are normally quite minor illnesses, compared with many others, so the ***benefit*** of finding a cure is relatively low.
Common colds aren’t just caused by a single pathogen, but by hundreds of different virus species from at least three families (rhinovirus, coronavirus (but not closely related to COVID), adenovirus (I think) and others). Each different family would need a different cure – at best. Possibly each different species, and (at worst) each seasonal variation of each species. So the ***cost*** of developing a “cure all common colds” cure is relatively high, compared with other diseases.
Since the benefit is relatively low, and the cost is relatively high, it has not been done. Medical research has focused on more important and/or more easily solved problems.
Until new technology brings down the cost, or new research shows the benefit is higher than we thought, we should not expect a cure for the common cold to be developed.
Most common colds are caused by rna viruses. These constantly mutate and change, making them virtually impossible to vaccinate against. You’d have to get 200 different vaccines just to protect against the ones we know about, and they would just mutate into new strains anyways.
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