Years ago my entire family got sick and I was determined not to contract it through distancing and frequent hand washing and sanitizing. It worked until I bent down to tie my toddler’s shoes only to look up and mid-sentence have him cough directly into my open mouth. All it takes is one mistake. Needless to say I got sick shortly after.

A few years ago I went on vacation for a week with a half-dozen friends in an Airbnb and spent the entire time miserably sick with some kind of respiratory illness. I was similarly determined not to get anyone else sick (and I was sick from the start, so avoided any asymptomatic period). I was fastidious about distancing and sanitizing, and any time I needed to cough I'd step outside of the house. Nobody else got sick. Is the sample size here large enough to determine anything? No idea, but I like the anecdote.

I wonder what the result would have been if you immediately gargled with vodka.

I've used that successfully in the past to chase colds out of the throat before they get into my nose and lungs.

I’ll try that next time!

Parent of a 1.5 year old here. Can confirm - several colds.

To the parent comment's point though, I haven’t had any colds in the last year where my daughter wasn’t sick first

They seem to have perpetual runny noses when they’re really young.

I'm not sure which explanation you are seeking to flip, but a sneeze can be cause by an adenovirus, which were apparently not suppressed this year as the influenza viruses and other four endemic coronaviruses were.