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 😞

Yes, but what about the ones without symptoms?

You’ve said it enough times MrsHuntGeneNotJeremyObviously, honestly.
The government says I am fine to go out with my cough. My GP said I’m fine to go out with my cough. My ENT consultant said I’m fine to go out with my cough. I observe social distancing rules fully. I am going out with my cough.

I have hay fever and asthma. I have a year round cough. It’s the same for lots of people. If somebody knows they have hay fever, is well otherwise, has no other symptoms then of course they can go out.

I have said it enough times. But there are still loads of stupid people on this thread who also keep saying 'but my cough isn't Covid', which is all very well but if they contract Covid as well, the act of repeatedly coughing or sneezing spreads that to everyone in their path.
There's a woman on another thread being told not to try on clothes in a supermarket over her own clothes because of potential spread but somehow it's okay to go about your normal business with a hacking cough!

but somehow it's okay to go about your normal business with a hacking cough!

Probably not to try on clothes in a supermarket with a hacking cough though.
The restrictive measures we have in place are primarily to protect the NHS. 2 separate members of the NHS have told me I am absolutely fine to go out with my cough (which I wouldn’t define as ‘hacking’, actually, it’s just a cough).

Yabu and ignorant. Coughs can be caused by allergies or asthma, and linger for many weeks after a cold too.

somehow it's okay to go about your normal business with a hacking cough!

Yes. It is. Two different doctors over two weeks have told me I can. Of course I'm careful not to cough over anyone or anything, but if I need to go to the shop, I will.

...and because people are still having a go at the OP and obviously didn't see her new OP, I'll quote her from that thread:

Hello everyone,

I just wanted to say I’m very sorry about the cough thread I started saying people with coughs should stay home. Having read through the thread, I’ve realised I was being totally unreasonable and I am sorry if I have upset anyone. No excuse but I am suffering badly from anxiety at the moment and lashing out in an irrational way. I hope you are well and safe.

If you don't have Covid then you are fine to go out with your cough. But honestly, how would you know you don't have it until we have full test and trace? Even people who have had Covid don't really know if they have immunity or how long immunity lasts.

People are having a go at the OP because she didn't bother to return to her own thread.

Well thankfully my GP and my consultant didn’t say ‘you’re fine to go out with your cough as long as you have been proven not to also have asymptomatic COVID by a test, taken before every trip out of the house’.

@MrsHuntGeneNotJeremyObviously

What if you've got a chronic cough but you also work at the hospital in a vital but not patient-facing role and have regular cv19 testing? Can you be outside then?

The govt sets guidance based on what is achievable. Since doctors don't have the tests to verify who has it and who doesn't and since people who feel well will mostly do as they please Inthe absence of these tests, your doctor won't tell you to stay home if you have a cough.
But the fact remains that coughing and sneezing spreads droplets up to 6m and they stay on the air for a while. So if you have a cough or are likely to sneeze a lot in public, you are making the choice to risk other people. I don't believe everyone is covering their faces effectively to prevent that spray.

NaNa, if you are being regularly tested then that massively reduces risk, so yes. It's not the coughing that's the problem, it's the not knowing if you have Covid as well. If you do and you have a chronic cough and are seeing people everyday, that's what will increase spread.

Also, as the best estimates are that 3% of the population have been infected with Covid, meaning that around 1% are probably infected at this exact time, and that 1% is likely to be people that are still working/using public transport/in healthcare settings etc rather than people who have been locked down for the past 5 weeks (7 for me actually as we were self isolating due to symptoms before that), and the fact that I haven’t been within 2m of anyone outside of my household in that time, and the fact that none of my household have symptoms (so would all need to be asymptomatic as there’s very little chance we wouldn’t have caught it from each other) means that the likelihood of me currently being an asymptomatic carrier is pretty slim, don’t you think? And if on the very very slim chance that I was an asymptomatic carrier, the likelihood of me passing that on during my daily walks in which I don’t touch anything and don’t pass within 2m of anyone else (in fact I can’t remember the last time I was in 5m of anyone else) is also pretty slim?

Is 3% the whole country? Half the NHS staff in A&E in my nearest big hospital tested positive, so I think in that area it's likely to be higher than 3%. The countryside might be very low, but the cities much higher.
I think anything we can do to lower transmission is important. There will be situations where going out really can't be avoided but if you can I think it's responsible to do so.

Well luckily for you I live in the countryside, reducing my risk even lower by your standards.

There will be situations where going out really can't be avoided but if you can I think it's responsible to do so

And now we’re just going round in circles. ‘I think’... well great. The health professionals I have specifically asked don’t agree with you. The government doesn’t agree with you. You think people shouldn’t go out unless they absolutely have to... well then don’t go out unless you absolutely have to. ‘You do you’ as the kids say nowadays. I’ll follow the professional advice I have taken.

Driving if you are already doing all that, then great. But I've been stood in queues with people coughing and not 6m away from me. No masks. So if they have it, they are sharing it.

People tend to agree with the govt when the govt tells them what they want to hear. But yes we are going around in circles. I'm going to leave this thread now, since it wasn't even mine to start with and I don't want to spend a second day arguing about it when I can't add anything new and the OP CBA to come back.

6m? Where did that come from?

Definitely last thing. 6m is the spray distance from sneezing/coughing

Im listening to what the two Dr’s that I specifically asked about this very subject said 🤷🏻‍♀️. Agree we should leave it there, we’re achieving nothing.

My hayfever has kicked in giving me a lovely phlegmy throat. Sadly I need to cough to clear it, I don't have Covid 19.

YABU. The guidelines are 'new' and 'persistent' cough. Otherwise they would have said not to go out if you have any type of cough. I cough a lot purely because I have allergies which irritate my throat. People like that know if their cough is a new one or persistent.