OMFG do not go out

[Hopefulworker]

If you have a cough, as innocuous as you might think it is! Why are you out? Just walked on my daily walk for about half an hour. 3 people walking past in safe distance all coughing 🤨 what the hell is wrong with people 😞

I have a dust / pollen / grass / scented cleaning product allergy... I'm pregnant and advised not to use antihistamines at the moment. I'll do my exercise and take my chances, thanks. I'll also use a tissue / my elbow / a mask (certified and tested) / avoid people as applicable. 😷

Ah it's ok some random on mumsnet knows best
I'll go and lock myself in the loft forthwith
And my colleague can come with me
With her cough
She had covid three weeks ago and the nhs have told her she can come back to work as the cough will persist for weeks but is not a risk
But some twat on mumnset says no
So off we go

Do you think the govt have handled the situation well, generally? Do you 100% trust them to make the right choices on our behalf? Do you think they might stop short of saying what is absolutely necessary because they feel it would be unenforceable? The govt balances its advice/instructions with what it believes the population will tolerate.
I think a lot of people are taking from the govt instructions what they want to hear.
And remember, this is a govt which allowed Cheltenham to go ahead, didn't buy PPE when advised to and whose PM caught it by shaking hands with known CV patients.

Better get my mum to tell her NHS boss that she can’t come to work with her post Covid cough as a random of the internet has told her it’s irresponsible. Hopefully said random will pay her wages too.

While I don't trust the government, I trust them and the likes of Professor Whitty more than some randoms on the internet who want to keep me indoors for the foreseeable future based on their paranoia.

Who’s advocating anyone coughing and spluttering all over the place? If I have an (occasional) cough, I’ll cough into a tissue which I immediately dispose off or into the crook of my arm as per government advice, and then immediately wash or sanitise my hands. As I’ve always done when I’ve coughed or sneezed.

Indeed driving
All those nurses and doctors with their post covid coughs sitting at home twiddling their thumbs for two months because some internet goady fucker says so
God this situation has made me despair realising how many utterly stupid people I share a country with

Do I think they’re handling it 100% well? No. Do I think I am at any risk to others with my diagnosed non Covid chronic cough on my daily walks in which I am never closer than 5m to someone? No.

Hobnob, presumably your colleague has immunity now? If she can't catch it again (and I don't know if that's proven) then she is safe. But the population generally doesn't know if it has immunity. Or if it is infected with CV in addition to whatever condition is causing repeated coughing/sneezing.
And that's the point. If you are out there and you are infectious, then your hay fever or long term cough will increase the chances of it being passed on. You are risking every other person you come into contact with.

I had a coughing fit on a walk the other day, a fly had just flown down my throat.

@MrsHuntGeneNotJeremyObviously are you particularly anxious about this?

What about NHS staff who haven’t had COVID but have hay fever, MrsHuntGeneNotJeremyObviously? At home until September at the earliest? That’s a fair bit of the workforce gone I imagine.

Just stay indoors and goals on the internet
The rest of us will get on with our lives and jobs

I kind of agree with you. It's pretty alarming hearing someone cough in the street or in a shop. They might know it's not Covid, but you don't.

Goad not goals
Bloody phone

They might know it's not Covid, but you don't

But people can’t stay at home for 6 months so as not to alarm people.

A bloke on the opposite pavement to me this morning coughed massively and spat in the gutter. envy (not envy)

That happens a lot at bus stops. Lovely innit?

I have hayfever and get sneezy and a dry throat so soometimes food goes down the wrong way and I cough.

Anyway, not to worry! The Donald has the cure!!!!

Honestly though, how many people are really keeping 5m apart? All the time? Not many. And can you honestly say that everyone in public is coughing or sneezing into a mask? Or even a tissue?
I'm fed up of standing in queues with some twat behind me who has no awareness of what 2m actually is (which isn't enough distance anyway to protect from droplets transmitted by coughing or sneezing), who then coughs.
On the whole people don't maintain proper distance when out (certainly not in supermarkets) and so the govt should either tell everyone to wear masks (which is unlikely since they didn't buy enough) or tell people who are likely to spread it to stay home.

I have asthma and hayfever which is very bad at the start of the pollen season. I was in the chemist picking up a prescription for my kids before the schools closed and the lockdown started but right when people were starting to get a bit jumpy. Pharmacist came over and asked about DD1 as she was off school and her daughter's in the same class and had been missing her. Was chatting and saying I'd just kept her off as the school switching to distancing mode had sent her anxiety through the roof and then I was like "OMG I NEED TO COUGH - IT'S ASTHMA!" and did one of those half swallow/half splutter/half cough things when you're trying not to cough, and everyone in the shop just started howling with laughter at how paranoid we all had become over it all.

I'll admit to a few stage coughs just before that when confronted with some manspreading space invading moron on the train to get them to move away a bit though.

so the govt should either tell everyone to wear masks (which is unlikely since they didn't buy enough) or tell people who are likely to spread it to stay home

Like I said, maybe you should write to your MP if you think their advice needs to change? Or Chris Whitty maybe?

I can only assess the risk in my own personal circumstances. I live semi rurally and have maybe come less than 5m from someone twice in the last 6 weeks. Never less than 2m. In the supermarket I remain 2m from everyone, and if I need to cough I either do it in a tissue which I put in a bag, or into the crook of my arm as advised.
If anyone chooses to come closer than 2m distance from me in a supermarket, I’m afraid that’s their issue.

MrsHunt, you haven't answered my question about sitting in the garden. Do you think I should I sit outside if I'm coughing in case one of the neighbours comes out?

Ridiculous. Someone coughing once as they walk past you does not mean they have a persistent cough symptomatic of COVID. Most people will cough if they go outside and the air is cold.

have you ever listened to videos of the CV cough it is a pretty distinctive cough it isnt the same at all as the one I currently have with hayfever

That said DD still does have a cough from it - she is now 4 weeks post symptoms starting and the cough could go on another week or 2. She is cleared to go out