OTC cold remedies do not cure your cold, but they certainly do work by treating the symptoms. Ever taken an airplane with congested sinuses without taking a decongestant?
Re:Why can’t we cure the common cold?
by TheCoelacanth on Sunday October 22, 2017 @02:14PM
(#15528120)
The palliatives do work, but there are a lot of things that claim to actually shorten the duration of a cold, e.g. Zicam, Cold-EEZE that have little to no evidence that they work.
If we'd spend all the money that people spend on OTC cold remedies that almost certainly don't work on developing a vaccine we probably could have one soon.