A cure for the common cold

Pfizer has a drug that can cure COVID-19. It slashes hospitalizations by 90% and virtually eliminates deaths from the illness. Furthermore, the drug disrupts the virus metabolism, and, therefore, works on all versions of COVID-19 as well as on the old Coronaviruses that causes some 10 - 15% of common colds. It probably works agains the deadly SARS and MERS as well.

The common cold is one of the main illnesses that plague us. It comprises of a few hundred viruses split of several types like Coronaviruses, Adenoviruses, Rhinviruses, Influenza, etc. For reasons that always escaped me, we never had a cure. It was always said that colds are so complex that science can't find a cure. But science wasn't trying hard enough.

With a bit of world shake from Covid-19, we now have a drug that effectively addresses and cures the common cold. It will not work on all colds -- just the 10-15% of them that are caused by coronaviruses, including COVID-19.

This is a major technological breakthrough and probably signals the end of the pandemic.

But ... why did we need a pandemic to fund this research? We could have done it 5 years ago or 10 years go or, maybe, even 20 years ago. There are 200 more cold viruses out there that still don't have a cure. There is a good chance we won't look for it now. Why?

Why do we have money to fund armies and nuclear bombs and space programs and, when it comes with something as common as the common cold that can turn as life threatening as the Spanischer flu, we just don't care?

After this pandemic, how can we justify not having research and vaccines and tests and drugs for all cold viruses?

Why? Because just like research on Gravitational Waves or just like literature and art, most of these drugs won't be sold for huge profit. They won't make private firms rich enough to lead the world, like it just happened to Pfizer. Yet, by developing them, we'd be ready for the next pandemic, when it comes.

Fundamental research should have enough government funding to thrive. By funding it we would get ready for the next pandemic. Research that matters should never be led by private companies that must deliver shareholder profit. But goverments aren't ready to make changes that matter. Leaders meet and cause wars. They don't fix problems.