To go on long coach journey with a cough?

[Ribrabrob]

I have a cough. It’s not corona virus, however it is a strong, persistent and annoying cough which has lasted a few weeks (I will go to the doctors next week).

I need to make a coach journey next week however I am worried about any nasty remarks or people being concerned I may have the virus! I’m in a country where masks are mandatory everywhere and my temperature would be checked before hand. But it’s also a country where I am noticeably ‘a foreigner’ which may bring more attention to me!

So aibu to take a coach journey with a cough at this time? Would it concern you? I can post pone the journey for a little longer however would rather not do so as it’s basically an ‘essential’ journey.,

I wouldn’t, it can’t be that essential if you can postpone it anyway.

You’ll make others anxious and stressed for your own gain.

Wait until it goes and then travel.

You wont be allowed surely as its a symptom of corona. Wont you have to sign a disclaimer to say you dont have a cough or temp etc?
If i was on a coach and someone was coughing, i would have to get off and not take my journey

Branleuse - if she's been tested won't she have an email or a text or something showing she's negative.
(Obviously, she could be incubating it, but that's true for anyone).

@Frugifan

The U.K. death count only includes those who have had a positive test and PhE have confirmed that only around 2000 people would be removed from the death count if they excluded those who died more than 28 days after getting a positive test and who didn't have Covid listed as cause of death.

Re the cough if you have a negative result, go on your trip.

I get a hay fever cough when pollen is high, I take antihistamines but they don't get rid of it completely. I've been trying to force myself not to cough in public but can't always stop it. I do always wear a mask when I'm shops etc

NO.

Covid or not, the other people on the bus don't know that you've had a test and are negative.

But they absolutely DO NOT want to listen to you barking constantly. It'll drive them all bat-shit insane.

The Covid tests give false negatives about 20% of the time.

Coughing in this heightened sense of awareness has made people get quite edgy.
I think you could risk unwanted attention hacking away.
A woman coughed in a park a couple of days ago, and people's heads shot up from their phones to look at ''WHO COUGHED!''....

I'd not want to be coughing in public in this climate.

Now is not the time to have a dry cough if you can avoid it.

In my workplace you're not allowed in with a cough, you'd be sent home. Public transport (and any enclosed public space) is a big no-no to be coughing and spluttering during this pandemic.

As someone else said you'll get enough dirty looks/comments just coughing in the street with a mask on in the current climate. To even think about a long coach journey with a virus at the moment, with a persistent cough as a symptom especially, is not advisable in the slightest.

@Gwenhwyfar

"even if it's not COVID you shouldn't be exposing people to your illness anyway."

Well, this is not true is it? People with normal coughs and colds are allowed to travel.

What happened to common courtesy?

So reassuring to see that COVID has enabled people to discriminate against a huge part of society.....

And again, if tests are so unreliable then why are we testing exactly?

And given 80% of cases are said to be a-symptomatic, it surely stands to reason that anyone could be incubating COVID so nobody should be going out otherwise it’s selfish....

Our workplace is opening back up but one of the conditions is if you've got any of the main symptoms of Covid (i.e. persistent cough) then you'll be ordered to go home and isolate and WFH to until the symptoms disappear. Not jump on a coach for 12 hours and terrify the rest of the passengers.

We've been open the whole time. If you get a COVID symptom you get a test. Also, because humour is important, if anyone coughs or sneezes in my office, some comedian will shout, "plague or pollen?"

It depends really. If it is an emergency and you really have to go then it doesn't matter what anyone here thinks.

I feel sorry for the other passengers tbh, 12hrs on a bus with someone coughing non stop will be miserable even if you have tested negative.

People are deluded if they believe the OP won’t be allowed on the bus. Bearing in mind that it’s going to be law to wear masks here and most people are saying they won’t and shops won’t be enforcing it.

And the OP is in a country where masks are being worn routinely, so which is worse? Someone wearing a mask who happens to have an unrelated cough? Or someone who is a-symptomatic (and probably has COVID because the tests aren’t reliable y’know,) and who refuses to wear a mask....

I've had a cough for 3 weeks thanks to sepsis - the last week or so I've been taking codeine and it's done the trick in killing it. Though air conditioning still irritates.

So if it's a tickly cough take pholcodeine linctus or just codeine

Codeine makes me throw up. Not great on a coach.

But, if you're wearing a mask, surely anything you cough will be contained in the mask, or otherwise what's the point of them?? @Chig - thank you - I also take Ramipril, and also get a bit of a dry cough, especially at the start of the day - hadn't connected it!

Couldn't you drive instead?

@RandomUsernameHere

Couldn't you drive instead?

Surely if that was an option she would?

Why do you need to go on a 12 hr bus trip op? Just been nosey, I'd rather stick pins in my eyes I think.

"What happened to common courtesy?"

Common curtesy has never included people with mild coughs being quarantined. There are some people with compromised immune systems, for the rest of us, it's better to be exposed to mild coughs and colds.

" anything you cough will be contained in the mask, or otherwise what's the point of them??"

I think they just catch the bigger droplets. Masks help, but don't prevent the spread of the virus.
Not relevant to OP, anyway as she doesn't have it.

The problem with having a non-covid persistent cough is that you could also get covid, then spread it more because of the coughing. I wouldn't if I were you. But if you do you need to wear a quality mask at all times.

I understand what @SunInTheSkyYouKnowHowIFeel meant. I’m one of the hay fever sufferers who didn’t medicate previously but now I am out of consideration for others. I’ve never taken PIriton as it makes me gag but I’m now taking religiously so I don’t frighten others with my coughing and sneezing.

Common curtesy has never included people with mild coughs being quarantined. There are some people with compromised immune systems, for the rest of us, it's better to be exposed to mild coughs and colds.

It’s really not doing people a favour to inflict coughs and colds on them when it’s otherwise quite avoidable.

The OP has said they don’t need to make this 12 hour coach trip whilst full of an illness that’s making them cough persistently. OP is currently pretty likely to spread this cough to the rest of the coach as they will be stuck in there together. And they’ve said they can reschedule. It would be common courtesy to not spread this nasty cough to a coach load of people. It would be arrogant to suggest it’s better for them all to be exposed to this. You don’t know the inconvenience it could cause when the majority of them come down with the same as OP.

For a start they’d all have to self isolate and get a Covid test.

"It’s really not doing people a favour to inflict coughs and colds on them when it’s otherwise quite avoidable."

It can be. You need to build up immunity. There are theories that some people are immune to the novel Coronavirus from immunity to coronavirus cold viruses.
Even if not, we're not required to stop our lives for mild colds and coughs.

What is a Corona virus cold virus?