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Original poster

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

894 replies

wildgreyocean · 20/12/2025 15:47

I know I’m not being unreasonable here but I just need some reassurance! I was in a coffee shop after popping to the shops and got a tickle in my throat. I’ve had a cold all week but nothing too severe. I coughed and next thing I know an old man is shouting at me that I’m being selfish and should be self isolating at home, and “don’t I know the NHS is on its knees?!”

AIBU to think this is a total overreaction to a cough?!

OP posts:
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StandingSideBySide · 20/12/2025 22:46

SugarandSpiceandAllThingsNaice · 20/12/2025 22:35

Blame the ones demanding evidence and sources of the most basic facts known about infection control. The OP does work in the NHS, and said she’s been going to work sick. I do wonder if she is patient facing and and hope to god she isn’t in neonatal or paediatrics.

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Patient or staff facing it’s still an enormous risk. These things get passed on.

Nevernonono · 20/12/2025 22:45

LizzieW1969 · 20/12/2025 22:44

I've had Long Covid since 2020. I cough most days, including when I'm out in coffee shops. The cough really doesn't mean that I'm contagious, though I am embarrassed when it happens.

Thankfully for me, I've never been shouted at.

You’ve no reason to be embarrassed by coughing, it happens!

XenoBitch · 20/12/2025 22:44

SugarandSpiceandAllThingsNaice · 20/12/2025 22:41

She put anyone vulnerable that she shared space with while sitting in a cafe drinking at unnecessary risk whether the very young, the elderly or the immunocompromised. All she had to do was get a take away.

It’s also not just what she did, but her defensive attitude and saying she would have done nothing different even if she were coughing Covid all over the cafe.

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If she was as contagious as you say, then even popping in for a takeaway would be putting people at risk.

She is defensive because a man approached her, a lone woman, and shouted at her.
I feel like I am going mad here. A man shouting at a woman in any other setting on MN would be have posters calling for him to be hung, drawn and quartered. But this thread... well, she wanted him to die from her post nasal drip... clearly.

This thread is mad and I feel like I am on another planet reading some of the comments here.

Original poster
wildgreyocean · 20/12/2025 22:44

SugarandSpiceandAllThingsNaice · 20/12/2025 22:41

She put anyone vulnerable that she shared space with while sitting in a cafe drinking at unnecessary risk whether the very young, the elderly or the immunocompromised. All she had to do was get a take away.

It’s also not just what she did, but her defensive attitude and saying she would have done nothing different even if she were coughing Covid all over the cafe.

Show quote history

That’s not what I said. You’re prone to hyperbole and outright untruths aren’t you?

OP posts:
Nevernonono · 20/12/2025 22:44

SugarandSpiceandAllThingsNaice · 20/12/2025 22:41

She put anyone vulnerable that she shared space with while sitting in a cafe drinking at unnecessary risk whether the very young, the elderly or the immunocompromised. All she had to do was get a take away.

It’s also not just what she did, but her defensive attitude and saying she would have done nothing different even if she were coughing Covid all over the cafe.

Show quote history

Oh dear god, get a grip! If we can’t go out with a nasal drip after a common cold, the world will stop
turning!

Yes I have been vulnerable, before you ask!

LizzieW1969 · 20/12/2025 22:44

I've had Long Covid since 2020. I cough most days, including when I'm out in coffee shops. The cough really doesn't mean that I'm contagious, though I am embarrassed when it happens.

Thankfully for me, I've never been shouted at.

Nevernonono · 20/12/2025 22:42

SugarandSpiceandAllThingsNaice · 20/12/2025 22:36

It is fact. It has happened in the past.

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Source….?

SugarandSpiceandAllThingsNaice · 20/12/2025 22:41

XenoBitch · 20/12/2025 22:37

Yes, you could be working on payroll... but you would still be told you are putting babies at risk.

Show quote history

She put anyone vulnerable that she shared space with while sitting in a cafe drinking at unnecessary risk whether the very young, the elderly or the immunocompromised. All she had to do was get a take away.

It’s also not just what she did, but her defensive attitude and saying she would have done nothing different even if she were coughing Covid all over the cafe.

XenoBitch · 20/12/2025 22:39

SugarandSpiceandAllThingsNaice · 20/12/2025 22:38

Exactly, no one has said she’s a baby killer.
Just OP saying it’s no big deal to spread colds or flus or even Covid.

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Or bullshit, as you seem to think is apt.

SugarandSpiceandAllThingsNaice · 20/12/2025 22:38

seafoamhair · 20/12/2025 22:36

Not really. Op is posting saying the vulnerable (which covers old people and babies broadly, as well as a raft of others) should just stay home all the time - meanwhile she would go insane if she couldn't do as she pleased.

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Exactly, no one has said she’s a baby killer.
Just OP saying it’s no big deal to spread colds or flus or even Covid.

XenoBitch · 20/12/2025 22:37

wildgreyocean · 20/12/2025 22:36

They’ve latched onto the fact that I work in the NHS. Forgetting there are a million and one non clinical roles in the NHS.

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Yes, you could be working on payroll... but you would still be told you are putting babies at risk.

SugarandSpiceandAllThingsNaice · 20/12/2025 22:37

XenoBitch · 20/12/2025 22:36

I could not use Reddit, Tik Tok, Instagram etc as a resource to make a claim, so why should you?
Anyone can make up any old shite on them.

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I didn’t use them so therefore, I did not use SM as references despite your allegation.

SugarandSpiceandAllThingsNaice · 20/12/2025 22:36

Nevernonono · 20/12/2025 22:35

But the original poster stated it as fact!

It’s not.

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It is fact. It has happened in the past.

Original poster
wildgreyocean · 20/12/2025 22:36

Jolenepleasetakeawaymyman · 20/12/2025 22:32

I’m a bit confused OP was in a coffee shop not on a neonatal ward or did I get that wrong?

We have gone from a quick coffee to her being a baby killer. Get a grip people.

They’ve latched onto the fact that I work in the NHS. Forgetting there are a million and one non clinical roles in the NHS.

OP posts:
seafoamhair · 20/12/2025 22:36

XenoBitch · 20/12/2025 22:33

This is MN. OP is killing babies stuck in hospital now. It is the MN hyperbolic way.

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Not really. Op is posting saying the vulnerable (which covers old people and babies broadly, as well as a raft of others) should just stay home all the time - meanwhile she would go insane if she couldn't do as she pleased.

XenoBitch · 20/12/2025 22:36

SugarandSpiceandAllThingsNaice · 20/12/2025 22:33

I posted nothing from social media. Social media are sites like instagram, facebook, TikTok, Reddit…..online news outlets are not SM. Anyone who has done any research knows the difference.

I did post the guidance from UKHSA dated 2 December 2025 and your response was to say that a common cold is not a respiratory illness. Are you sure you studied healthcare at University?

Well you claimed expertise so I think it’s fair to ask if you actually got a Uni degree or just attended Uni.

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I could not use Reddit, Tik Tok, Instagram etc as a resource to make a claim, so why should you?
Anyone can make up any old shite on them.

SugarandSpiceandAllThingsNaice · 20/12/2025 22:35

Jolenepleasetakeawaymyman · 20/12/2025 22:32

I’m a bit confused OP was in a coffee shop not on a neonatal ward or did I get that wrong?

We have gone from a quick coffee to her being a baby killer. Get a grip people.

Blame the ones demanding evidence and sources of the most basic facts known about infection control. The OP does work in the NHS, and said she’s been going to work sick. I do wonder if she is patient facing and and hope to god she isn’t in neonatal or paediatrics.

Nevernonono · 20/12/2025 22:35

Jimmyneutronsforehead · 20/12/2025 22:15

Right, but what I am saying is neonatal infection risk from staff illness is well established; individual causation is rarely publishable. Demanding sources misunderstands how healthcare evidence works.

You would be unreasonable to dismiss what is being said as an "outrageous lie", which is what you did, because the evidence you're demanding isn't publicly available.

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But the original poster stated it as fact!

It’s not.

StandingSideBySide · 20/12/2025 22:34

Jimmyneutronsforehead · 20/12/2025 22:27

This isn’t a courtroom. Public health evidence doesn’t work on “prove Nurse A caused Baby B illness or death”. Policy exists because the risk is well established, even if individual causation isn’t publicly documented.

It's not hard to understand is it? Babies are significantly immuno deficient compared to much older children and adults, transmissable illnesses exist, nurses aren't magical unicorns that never get ill, babies can and do get ill from transmissable illness and yes some die. That's how the policy works, it understands the risk.

This is verging on science denying now.

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Well said

SugarandSpiceandAllThingsNaice · 20/12/2025 22:33

XenoBitch · 20/12/2025 22:29

Firstly, yes, you did.
Secondly, if you are going to insist on people following medical guidelines then you could at least post them from a medical source and not dig up museum grade websites like MSN.
And the last question is totally irrelevant to this thread.

Show quote history

I posted nothing from social media. Social media are sites like instagram, facebook, TikTok, Reddit…..online news outlets are not SM. Anyone who has done any research knows the difference.

I did post the guidance from UKHSA dated 2 December 2025 and your response was to say that a common cold is not a respiratory illness. Are you sure you studied healthcare at University?

Well you claimed expertise so I think it’s fair to ask if you actually got a Uni degree or just attended Uni.

XenoBitch · 20/12/2025 22:33

Jolenepleasetakeawaymyman · 20/12/2025 22:32

I’m a bit confused OP was in a coffee shop not on a neonatal ward or did I get that wrong?

We have gone from a quick coffee to her being a baby killer. Get a grip people.

This is MN. OP is killing babies stuck in hospital now. It is the MN hyperbolic way.

Jolenepleasetakeawaymyman · 20/12/2025 22:32

I’m a bit confused OP was in a coffee shop not on a neonatal ward or did I get that wrong?

We have gone from a quick coffee to her being a baby killer. Get a grip people.

StandingSideBySide · 20/12/2025 22:31

StandingSideBySide · 20/12/2025 22:19

Re neonates dieing

I have no idea re numbers catching it in hospitals but obviously if babies are in hospital they can be infected there just as anywhere else if ill and contagious people are nearby or infecting surfaces

neonates are very vulnerable
2.3% of world deaths of babies up to 27 days old die from RSV
caught from others having cold like symptoms.

Its mentioned on the nhs website with stats on the nih article below

Having looked a little further
This shows hospital acquired RSV carries a higher death rate amongst children that are in hospital than those in the local community.
Results of 27 research studies in 11 countries

Just got shouted at in a coffee shop for coughing in public 🥴
XenoBitch · 20/12/2025 22:30

SugarandSpiceandAllThingsNaice · 20/12/2025 22:30

No they were not social media. A few were MSN. Lots of other sources were posted including a few from UK.gov

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And none applied to OP anyway.

SugarandSpiceandAllThingsNaice · 20/12/2025 22:30

XenoBitch · 20/12/2025 22:22

And your "sources" were MSN (who even uses that now?) and other social media.

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No they were not social media. A few were MSN. Lots of other sources were posted including a few from UK.gov