Just got shouted at in a coffee shop for coughing in public 🥴

If person feels well enough to be out not only are they entitled to sit in the cafe, they are also following the NHS guidelines.

I’m sure coffee shops will really appreciate it if everyone with a stuffy nose or a tickly throat stays away, great for business.

So person full of cold & cough sitting in cafe is entitled to stay there but anyone in there who doesn’t want to catch it must leave ? That makes no sense .

A friend of mine started teaching last year. She said the first winter she was constantly getting sick, but this year she’s been okay so far.
Similar when kids start nursery, the first winder they pick up every bug there is and then it usually calms down.

I do agree but I would think it was a knee-jerk reaction and he may even have regretted it! Who knows, it's becoming a storm in a teacup tbh.

Exactly. Cafe would also lose money if every potential customer with a sniffle stayed at home. Hospitality would really struggle in winter, and I imagine it’s already a tough business.
I also find it interesting how people who never missed an opportunity to remind everyone that IT’S NOT A COLD! during Covid have now moved onto reprimanding people with colds.

Well said. I recall people talking about when we'd start treating covid like a cold and get on with life again. Some people on this thread seem to want to treat colds like covid instead and, worse, act as self-appointed enforcers.

Self-righteously 'calling out' others 'again and again' for coughs that may have nothing to do with infections is beyond entitled. I'm asthmatic and can have very bad coughs. I do not have to explain myself when out and about and I will certainly not be secluding myself. There are many things I find 'visibly gross' when out and about but I don't get to harangue people who aren't actually transgressing any rules.

But much as some posters on this thread wish it otherwise, there is no societal norm much less guidance that people must stay at home with minor ailments. It's really not on to admonish strangers in public because they're breaking a non-existent rule.

Dozens of people have also pointed out that coughs do not mean a person is infectious. He had no way of knowing why the op was coughing and despite any anxiety - and I think we can all sympathise with the sinking feeling you get when you're on a train or in a queue near someone with a bad cough - it's not acceptable to tell people off.

Yep pp thinking it’s ok to yell at anyone is the bigger problem.

I've had a cough for 3 months now, stayed away for the first month and was careful the second month but this 3rd month been almost normal except for the cough. Dr's have said I'm fine now and cough can linger for a lot longer so will have to live with it. I'm not going to lock myself away anymore as I can't. Also my son has asthma and he's been coughing this week with that as he does each winter in the air change. Inhaler helps usually

Maybe we could all have a little bell when we are sick and go out. Then we could shout unclean (in crocky voices). So people could move away.

Problem solved for all. Might send that to Wes Sterling as free advice.

If you’re going to be visibly gross and ill in public after a literal pandemic which left people injured and dead be prepared to be called out for it now and again.

This sort of thing exemplifies exactly why such people need to be told to fuck off, again and again. We simply cannot allow random entitled busybodies to decide whether someone with a cough should be allowed to move unmolested in public space or not.

I mean, that's true but in fact the smoker's hack wouldn't be contagious whereas the tickle, if the beginnings of a cold, could well be.

All this ‘the country would grind to a halt if we weren’t out spreading our bugs’ is clearly cope from people who are lazy and selfish and it makes no sense if you’re going to make even more people sick. If you’re going to be visibly gross and ill in public after a literal pandemic which left people injured and dead be prepared to be called out for it now and again. Sitting in a cafe isn’t necessary and you’re the sick one so you should be avoiding it not others. I know we were pushed and pulled in various directions 5 years ago depending on what the economy needed at the time but FFS come on.

It really isn't. It's entitled and ridiculous to suggest that anyone with a cold but who feels well enough to crack on with everyday life shouldn't do so in case someone else catches their cold.

As I say, I get very anxious in public spaces when someone is clearly full of cold but it's on me to then leave if I don't like it. I'm nobody's problem but my own.

Maybe vulnerable people shouldn't be going into busy coffee shops then? It's swings and roundabouts, isn't it. Illness is an unfortunate fact of life. People who are more vulnerable to illness than others are also a fact of life. Why is the onus more on one group than another to protect the more vulnerable people? Isn't it their job to protect themselves?

I say this as someone who actually does have health anxiety (which I acknowledge to be my problem) and especially in the run up to Christmas. I find it troublesome and anxiety-inducing when in an enclosed public space and there is a clearly unwell person there. However, I acknowledge that illness is a fact of life and that it would be wholly unreasonable to expect anyone to act differently to accommodate me.

I think if you feel poorly and have a heavy cold, it's polite to stay away from busy public spaces where you could infect others. If, like the OP, you have a mild cold and lingering cough, but feel well enough to be out and about, it's fine to do so. As a person with health anxiety (or if I were particularly vulnerable to a respiratory infection), it is my responsibility to avoid busy places where possible if I want to avoid getting ill. It isn't anyone else's responsibility to ensure I avoid illness but mine if i so choose.

I didn't say OP was in the wrong but there are 2 sides to this. He reacted out of fear and, from their replies, the OP doesn't seem an over-sensitive bunny to me so I don't see it as any big deal. Does he stay indoors in case someone coughs near him or does OP stay out of coffee shops in case she coughs near a vulnerable person? It's all a nothing really.

i meant for jobs where it could be possible ie you don’t need to be there in person with the public.

Just one example . I’ve been to meetings with service providers in the past where one of their people turns up coughing or full of cold with an “ oh I’ve got a bit of a cold!”

we weren’t impressed as we then caught it & it went around our office . various people ended up off sick themselves including my boss.

They should disclose sickness before the meeting .

anyway It soured the relationship and my boss cancelled the contract , that being an underlying reason that we never mentioned. We just didnt want to deal with that careless client facing person again (or the company that allowed them attend)

Ive got a bit of a cold. Out of sheer curiosity (i knew what her response would be tbf) i messaged my friend im going shopping and lunch with later to let her know in case she wanted to cancel or have a go at me for even thinking about going out in public and got "dont be an absolute fanny, see you at 10"

@Lifestooshort71then the old boy should have gone out at a quieter time and not the last Saturday before Christmas.

I wonder how many people have a cold rn and how we’d function if everyone took some pp advice and stayed home.

HRTWT but have read op's
You have post nasal drip and coughed because of this - it probably sounded phlegmy and infectious. But it wasn't. The old boy didn't know that, presumably he is worried about catching flu (may have underlying chest issues) and shouted at you because it sounded worse than it was and he was feeling vulnerable. I don't see any big deal about either of your behaviours but I'd probably have a tad more sympathy for him.

I just meant companies where wfh could be possible .

i understand many jobs can’t be wfh .
But if those that can do then, it would reduce the amount of spread of germs & sickness to others including those who have to work in person with the public

it could also help employers and the economy with less sickness absences.

It’s just common sense and courtesy in my eyes: Keep your germs to yourself if at all possible.

But many of us coughing don't have a cold. I cough a lot because of my asthma. But I know it's asthma and not a cold

The comments on this thread are batshit crazy.
its a cold and it’s winter.
everyone seems to be vulnerable since 2020, we’ll stay in then !!
people need to go out and people need to work!
Do you honestly think people working in retail and hospitality don’t work with a virus? Because they absolutely do!
I could not phone in sick with a cold, I would work as I don’t get paid.
if an old man shouted at me for coughing and started going on about the NHS, I would have no problem pointing out that one of the things bringing it to its knees is that people are living longer and need more care !