A company selling tissues deliberately exposed to the flu virus managed to sell out its $79.99 product online, and the reaction on the streets of Mobile ranged from disbelief to flat-out disgust.
The product, called the Vaev tissue, promises to work “hand in hand with the human body” — the idea being that a customer breathes in germs left on a tissue a sick person used before them. Founder Oliver Niessen told Time.com the pitch is about timing: get sick now, on your own schedule, rather than later. He said the company keeps ten “go-to sneezers,” verifies each is genuinely ill, then has them sneeze into batches of tissues that are packaged and shipped.
Mobile’s Verdict: Hard Pass
Asked about it around Mobile, residents were skeptical. Julie Wiseman admitted she initially assumed the whole thing was a joke: “So I thought you were lying. I thought this was a major joke.” Scott Stone simply said, “No, I don’t think it’s real.”
Wiseman’s objection was economic as much as medical: “Why wouldn’t you just go to the pharmacy and get the 20-dollar flu shot?” Though she allowed that at $20 instead of $80, she might actually try it. Ron Durbin was less flexible. “I think it’s absolutely ludicrous,” he said, calling the concept an old wives’ tale and urging people to rely on a well-developed flu vaccine instead.
Doctors Aren’t Buying It Either
Medical experts quoted in the same Time article were no more kind. Dr. Charles Gerba of the University of Arizona labeled the tissues an “incredible liability,” noting there is no way to predict how any individual will react to exposure to a virus.