How do you get a cold or flu on purpose?

Hopefully, you want to know how to do such a seemingly foolish thing for inclusion in a mystery novel that you are writing, but probably the most sure way would be to find a person who is about one day into feeling symptoms of the cold or flu and infect yourself by contact with them. Perhaps the most effective method of contact would be to take a swab from their nasal passages and immediately swab it inside your nose. If you were on a tight time table, you probably would repeat that several times a day for two days to be sure their mucus containing the virus has made contact with your mucous tissue.

For those who want to avoid getting the flu or a cold, see the related questions below for information about how it is spread and how it is prevented.