Between the Devil and the deep blue sea

Yesterday's post reminded of when I was in the RAF doing my National Service.  I was stationed in Germany and this was at the height of the Cold War.  I remember we had a lecture on the possibility of a nerve gas attack,  The consequences of such an attack were laid out in gruesome detail.  But it was OK, because if such an attack were really imminent, we would be issued with an antidote with which to inject ourselves.  The symptoms we should look out for were a bad headache, runny nose,  general fatigue and muscle weakness,  In other words, the same symptoms as a bad cold or 'flu,  If we experienced these, we should consider injecting ourselves with the antidote.  Problem?  The antidote was itself a poison, and if you got it wrong and it was just 'flu, the antidote would kill you!