Ah-Choo! The Uncommon Life of Your Common Cold – Jennifer Ackerman, 2010

Lots of interesting details but a lot of questions left unanswered or answered in contradictory ways. Cold germs spread all over the place so you should wash your hands… but the poker players using cards and chips soaked in nasal secretions (ie fomites, my new favorite word) didn’t catch colds, and many of those who played in the same room, with their hands restrained, did. To misapply William Goldman, “Nobody knows anything.” OK, that’s too strong, but we know so very very little. A decent book but ultimately a little unsatisfactory, especially because the author seems to put to one side everything laid out in the previous chapter when embarking on a new one.

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