Startup sells dirty tissues to make people sick ‘on their own terms’

Claiming their product to be better than chemical medicines and pills, a startup has started selling tissues of sick people.

A startup called Vaev has introduced the method to sell people dirty sneezed-on tissues for people to get sick ‘on their own terms’ and cut down the dependency on chemical medicines and pills.

CEO Olive Nissen said on the company website, “We believe that when flu season comes around, you should be able to get sick on your terms. We’re not about chemicals or prescription drugs here at Vaev. We believe using a tissue that carries a human sneeze is safer than needles or pills.”

The idea, as per CNET, is to order a sick person’s tissue and infect oneself with whatever the other person has sneezed into the tissue at a time that is convenient for the person. Due to this, the immune system will get build up and be trained to be healthy so that the person doesn’t get sick later when it would be more inconvenient.

Video Courtesy: Vaev Tissue

CEO Oliver Nissen told Times that Vaev has a ‘stable’ of 10 go-to sick people who are actually employed to sneeze into the tissues. By rubbing the face with the germ-ridden tissue, a person will get to get sick on their own terms and not when the common cold season is around.

“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,” says Niessen. You’d wipe your nose with a Vaev tissue a few days before leaving on vacation, for instance, and get your cold out of the way before your trip, Niessen says. “That kind of freedom, that kind of luxury to choose – we customize everything in our lives and we have everything the way that we want it, so why not approach sickness that way as well?”

What’s more surprising is that the dirty tissues, which the firm sells at almost $80 per piece, have already been sold out, with Niessen claiming to create more of them soon.

However, some experts have also pointed out multiple concerns regarding this issue. One of those concerns as described by Dr. Brahm Segal, chief of the infectious diseases department at Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center told CNET that the virus is unlikely to survive on the tissue, and instead the person would only be using a dirty tissue rather than an infected one.