Get sick on your terms: Company sells snot-filled tissues at over Rs 5000

Days after Indians were left stunned to know that coconut shells were being sold for Rs 1400 on Amazon, here comes another shocker from a Los Angeles-based start-up company.

The bizarre marketing strategy adopted by the company, Vaev is based on the idea that you should get sick on your terms and for this purpose, it is selling used, snot-filled tissues at $79.99 – that’s approximately Rs. 5,700.

“We believe that when flu season comes around, you should be able to get sick on your terms. We believe using a tissue that carries a human sneeze is safer than needles or pills,” writes Vaev Tissues on its website.

The company states the tissue is “specially treated with organic ingredients, is non-prescription, and works hand in hand with the human body to keep your immune system feeling like your immune system.”

On Twitter, the reactions have been less than enthusiastic, with many calling the product “disgusting”.

Explaining the rationale behind the product, Oliver Niessen, the 34-year-old founder of the company, in an interview to TIME says, “The simple idea is you choose now to get sick, with the idea in mind that you won’t get sick with that same cold … later.” 

However, according to Charles Gerba, professor of microbiology and environmental sciences at the University of Arizona, the problem is that this is not how viruses work.

“There’s a lot of things wrong with that,” he tells Time. “There are more than 200 types of rhinoviruses, so you’re going to have to shove about 200 tissues up your nose each time to get a different one. But getting inoculated from one doesn’t protect you against all the others.”

“That’s why we’ve never had a vaccine for the common cold,” he says. “How do you make a vaccine against 200 different viruses?”