You can take steps to prevent colds and flu. The only problem is that these steps may drive you completely nuts. This article has 23 tips:

Prevent Colds and the Flu

Just by reading the article you can see why it would drive you nuts. No longer does it suffice to wash your hands once. Now you need to wash them twice. And you need to wash them twice five times per day or more. You can’t touch doorknobs, because your unclean brethren have touched them and this would mess up your clean hands, so you have to use a paper towel when opening a door. You can’t rub your eyes with your finger anymore – now you have to use your knuckle. You have to put a box of kleenex “wherever people sit” (can’t wait to see movie theaters implementing that, and of course you cannot touch the arm rests or anything else in a theater so you shouldn’t be going there anyway). You have to lower the temperature of your house 5 degrees, so now instead of 68 (to save energy) you need to lower it to 63 (to prevent colds). And so on.

Yikes. And then someone on the subway sneezes in your face and it is all for naught.

The article did contain this tidbit that you might want to try:

Inhale air from your blow-dryer. It sounds nuts, we know. But one study conducted at Harvard Hospital in England found that people who breathed heated air had half the cold symptoms of people who inhaled air at room temperature. Set the dryer on warm, not hot, and hold it at least 18 inches from your face. Breathe in the air through your nose for as long as you can — 20 minutes is best.

If that is true, it is remarkable, and it might explain why people get fewer colds in the summer. Maybe we all have colds year round, but by breathing heated summer air we just don’t realize it? It also advocates for wintering in the Florida Keys or Mexico.

[See previous PSA]