Amazon is attempting to cure the common cold through a vaccine or other means as part of its secretive research group, Grand Challenge.
The endeavor, called “Project Gesundheit,” is a yearslong effort to cure the most common illness in the world, according to CNBC. In 2003, a University of Michigan study found that the common cold costs the U.S. economy roughly $40 billion per year in medical expenses and lost productivity.
Scientists began searching for a cure to the common cold in the 1950s with a vaccine to immunize people against the most prevalent type of the disease-causing virus, the rhinovirus. The vaccine was ineffective, and subsequent attempts to cure the cold have been largely ineffective.
Over 200 different strains of the common cold exist, and developing a catch-all cure has proven to be extremely difficult. Several home remedies and guards have been discovered with some success, but no effective means of preventing or curing the disease has been found. Some form of the common cold usually hits adults two to four times per year and children around 10 times.
Amazon’s Grand Challenge research group focuses on finding solutions that would have a major impact on humanity, so its efforts are not just limited to curing the common cold. While not many boundaries are placed on which kinds of projects the group is used for, most of the group’s research is aimed at solving problems in the medical sector because of the amount of opportunity in the market.
