BTW, I was fascinated to learn the other day that the symptoms we
associate with a cold are not directly attributable to the virus. They
are, in fact, the symptoms caused by the immune system as it runs through
a battery of defences to fight the infection.
I had thought that the fact that Id not "had" a cold for years was because
I was healthy and had good defences. Not necessarily, it seems. I may
actually have had a cold, but my immune system was ready for it and able
to attack and defeat it without running through the full battery of
counter-attacks. In fact, those twinges of a sore throat which I thought
for an hour or so were a cold coming on, were probably just that: a cold
coming on but then licked by the immune system.
Keith