Seems like everyone I know talks Airborne up a storm as if it prevents or reduces cold symptoms. However, there's no evidence Airborne works. The manufacturer supposedly performed one clinical study, but the results of that are nowhere to be found on their web site. You can find the supposed results on the Wayback machine. Then a bit later these results myseriously disappeared.
"Simply washing your hands during cold and flu season is a much more effective way of preventing colds," said David Kroll, a pharmacologist at Duke University Medical School.