Moving mutants

I am just getting over a common cold today. Surprisingly, it was my first in about three years. Being scientifically trained, it makes me ponder how do they find a cure for the common cold through its spread.

The common cold is caused by a virus. Viruses routinely mutate when jumping host to host. This is why people need new flu shots each year because a new genetic variation of the virus is spreading among the population. Not being medically trained, the mighty Wikipedia saved the day giving a description of the many viruses that cause colds (links in quotes do not work)

The common cold is a viral infection of the upper respiratory tract. The most commonly implicated virus is a rhinovirus (30–50%), a type of picornavirus with 99 known serotypes.^[5][14][15] Others include: coronavirus (10–15%), influenza^[5] human parainfluenza viruses, human respiratory syncytial virus, adenoviruses, enteroviruses, and metapneumovirus.^[10] In total over 200 serologically different viral types cause colds.^[5] Coronaviruses are particularly implicated in adult colds. Of over 30 coronaviruses, 3 or 4 cause infections in humans, but they are difficult to grow in the laboratory and their significance is thus less well-understood.^[10] (5–15%),

I knew there were multiple "cold" viral strains out there, but I never realized there were several distinguishable viruses causing illness. The inability to grow with ease in a laboratory answers the question why have we not made little progress on a cure. The other main reason why we can not find a cure

Due to the many different types of viruses and their tendency for continuous mutation, it is impossible to gain complete immunity to the common cold.

How does one track this mutation? When does a virus become genetically variable to reinfect a healthy host? When is a virus a completely new strain? How many hosts are required for each step is the key factor.

My guess will be the use of laboratory animals since it would be impossible to track human to human transmission. Species that are helpful would need to resemble humans, i.e. rats, mice, pigs or primates. Once a host is infected, isolate the animal and allow only one other host to have contact limiting the infection's spread. This would be a long term research project. I am not necessarily sure that big pharmaceuticals are up to the expensive task.