Why hasn't anyone found a cure for the common cold yet?

Question

It must be a conspiracy from the big drugs companies.

Answer 1

There are 100's of strains of the virus that causes the common cold, and each one is constantly mutating, and so finding a cure is like a 100 moving targets, all going in a different direction. But yes, maybe it is a conspiracy of the big drug companies, just like the CIA caused AIDS :)

Answer 2

The common cold is the highest form of evolution for any disease. All diseases should aspire to be the common cold. Most younger, stupider diseases haven't figured out yet that if you kill your host, or even make them really ugly, you won't spread any more. I have deep respect for the cold. I had a 2-month loving relationship with a cold virus while I was in college once -- I was very satisfying: it was another living thing to keep me company at night with assorted wetness of mucous membranes, it was someone who would listen to me without judgment, and it gave me a reason to pamper myself. Hey, when you're young and stupid, what more are you looking for in a relationship? And now that I'm older and wiser, I use the common cold as a powerful indication: if I get a cold, that means that something was wrong enough in my life that my immune system succumbed to it, and tells me very clearly that I need to be taking beter care of myself. Hooray for the Cold!