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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

People with coughs shouldn’t be allowed in restaurants?

396 replies

Andrewsgirl · 15/07/2021 00:02

AIBU to think people with continual coughs shouldn’t be allowed in a restaurant at the moment and to be annoyed a restaurant allowed someone with a very obvious cough dine there?

OP posts:
lazystar · 16/07/2021 19:12

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Nearly47 · 16/07/2021 19:14

You are not completely unreasonable. I'd probably leave as soon as I could but I can't see what staff could do

Crankley · 16/07/2021 19:19

If you're ignorant enough to think that anyone coughing will give you the dreaded lurgy you best stay at home. People have given many innocent reasons here why they cough. I smoked all my life until a long hospital stay after which I no longer smoked but still have a persistent cough.

Meanwhile we will go out and enjoy our lives.

Topseyt · 16/07/2021 19:20

OP isn't coming back now.

She wanted to be told that the other diner should have been flung unceremoniously out of the restaurant onto the street.

Instead, she has quite rightly been handed her own arse on a plate.

Beline4u · 16/07/2021 19:52

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jwpetal · 16/07/2021 19:54

You could have left. I have done this. It is also our choice to mot act

OnGoldenPond · 16/07/2021 19:57

With the Delta variant a cough is not even one of the most common symptoms any more. Headaches and sneezing are much more common.

ThistleTits · 16/07/2021 20:01

I have COPD and a continuous cough. Not infectious to you or others. You are incredibly ignorant and selfish.

OnGoldenPond · 16/07/2021 20:03

My MIL had an almost continuous cough for the last few years of her life due to reflux. Sadly she didn't live long enough to see Covid but on the other hand she didn't need to deal with judgement from people like OP when she went on a rare night out.

A continuous cough is only a possible Covid symptom if it is new and doesn't have any other known cause. You can't know this information about strangers in restaurants so are not in a position to judge.

Biscuitybiscuit · 16/07/2021 20:43

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Purplealienpuke · 16/07/2021 20:50

Feel free never to leave your house again....
In the real world some people like myself have stayed home sheilding for the best part of 18 months. Because I have health conditions that meant Covid probably would have finished me off. One of these conditions causes me to cough. I do not have Covid. I have been vaccinated. I have no desire to stay cooped up any longer to pander to the likes of you OP.
If people coughing causes your tiny pea to go into overdrive rather than enjoying your meal with whomever you are dining with then maybe you should take a turn staying home and looking at your four walls? Hopefully you have a garden and hopefully your neighbours don't have a cough!! Here's a Biscuit incase get hungry.....

mightbealittlebitmad · 16/07/2021 20:51

Not everyone who coughs has covid or even anything contagious...

I have hayfever which means I can have sneezing attacks. If someone said I couldn't go out because I was sneezing and it might be contagious I would tell them to do one.

I don't go anywhere if I'm truly ill unless I need to make an emergency medicine purchase but I will be going out with a bit of a cold come winter if I feel fine. We can't all stay at home for days on end for a bit of a sniffle, I would end up losing my job!

Buffs · 16/07/2021 20:52

Get yourself fully vaccinated and stop worrying about it.

Aprilx · 16/07/2021 20:55

I have had a cough for going on six weeks now, my coughs always hang around for a while, it happens every two or three years. I do not have covid, I am generally well in myself, I don’t cough all over other people, so I don’t think I need to be banished from restaurants or other public places.

Winnona · 16/07/2021 20:58

My mother has COPD as a result of whooping cough as a child. Some of the comments she gets for coughing are awful and greatly upset her. You do realize not all coughs are contagious?

StevieNix · 16/07/2021 21:05

Get a grip op, lots of people cough for lots of different reasons. They shouldn’t have to stay home because you’ve deemed that they should.
They can obviously tell wether they’re cough is a NEW continuous cough or not, and they shouldn’t have to disclose their personal medical information to you.

MyTeenagersPissMeOffMostDays · 16/07/2021 21:20

I've just got over German measles. It went to my chest and the cough is lingering. I'm not contagious, don't have covid. But by your reasoning I shouldn't be allowed to eat out. YABU

Tigger1895 · 16/07/2021 21:20

I feel my shoulders go up anytime someone coughs near me. I think some of us are just socially anxious now after living in lockdown for so long.

pam290358 · 16/07/2021 21:29

Don’t be daft -there are a million and one reasons that people cough, Covid is just one of them. I really think people are getting ridiculous with this now. One person upthread related how a parent was accosted in the park for coughing - not Covid, lung cancer. Same thing happened to me with my mum a couple of weeks ago - 91 and with dementia and COPD. She can’t wear a mask because of breathing difficulties and she had a coughing fit. So some cretin started berating the both of us, demanding to know why she wasn’t wearing a mask. I’m in a wheelchair and for various reasons am exempt from wearing a mask - last week I was hounded out of our local supermarket by an assistant who demanded to know why I was exempt. I even produced the government issue letter explaining that it’s illegal to do this, but it made no different. I left without doing any shopping to a chorus of disapproving tuts from other shoppers. A few months ago I would have explained - both about my own condition and my mum’s. Not now - your medical history is between you and your doctor. Everyone else should mind their own business and get a grip. It needs to stop.

Abraxan · 16/07/2021 21:39

After pneumonia I had a cough for months.
After Covid my slight but continual cough went on for weeks.

Many other things other than Covid cause coughs.
Dh coughs a lot in the summer - I think it's hay fever related.

So should these people, who haven't tested positive for Covid, be barred from going out for months on end?

Abraxan · 16/07/2021 21:40

A continual cough is a Covid symptom.

Yes but a person may well know they have tested negative for Covid.
I take twice weekly Covid tests, I'm double vaccinated and I still have antibodies from a previous case of Covid last year.
The likelihood of me having Covid even if I have a cough is minimal right now.

Snowflakekiller · 16/07/2021 21:41

cough cough - Quickly hides in case OP is getting ready to stone me to death in the street - muppets

Abraxan · 16/07/2021 21:41

@Andrewsgirl

Bit of a difficult thing to establish though, whether it’s new or old cough !
Not for the person who knows they've had a cough for years! They'll know if it's old or new.
HaudYerWheeshtYaWeeBellend · 16/07/2021 21:45

Bit of a difficult thing to establish though, whether it’s new or old cough !

It’s not for you to establish, it’s down to personal responsibility and individually know if it’s a new cough or not.

There is other illness which causes coughing other than C19!

Justgorgeous · 16/07/2021 21:45

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