Asked to leave for not wearing a mask

[DuchessOfDisaster]

I've just gone to my book group meeting. I'm mask exempt, and have a cold. Not COVID, we test twice a week at work. I was asked to wear a mask and as I didn't have one offered to leave. The other members said they thought that was best.

It's silly but I feel miffed! Even though I think it's the right thing!

Showing up to a book group with a cold and announcing you were exempt from wearing a mask was a dick move, op.
As was starting a thread lamenting that you'd been asked to leave when you actually suggested it yourself. Stop dramatising.

DS1 had cold symptoms and is asthmatic so was wheezy and short of breath. LFT constantly at work negative. Phoned GP and he sent prescription for antibiotics and steroids but also said to do a PCR as a precaution. DS1 had no other symptoms than cold, test came back the next morning as Covid. Thankfully he had already had double jab so was quite ill for a few days but mostly exhausted and breathless and has now more or less recovered.

I also think you were being a bit unreasonable because those people will now be a bit worried. Although it is lovely to get back to things we have missed we do need to consider others more at the moment. Passing a cold around isn’t great either. Others may have underlying health problems.

I'm not sure we can eliminate colds though & if that's a good thing? I don't genuinely know?

We can’t because there are so many strains of cold - that’s why babies and young children catch so many. By the time you’re an adult you are then immune to quite a lot of them so you only catch one once or twice a year, as opposed to 6 or 7 or more when you’re a toddler. Children also don’t get such strong symptoms with them, not dissimilar to their response to Covid. Avoiding colds in children at all costs, keeping them off nursery and school when they are well enough to plod along quite happily, is very damaging in the long run and will make for very vulnerable adults in the future who will be knocked out by common colds for half the year.

@DroopyClematis

I'm just hanging around here to hear why OP , who is 'mask exempt' , carries a mask.

She doesn't and that's why she left.

I'm just hanging around to find out why she considers herself mask exempt, yet infers she would've worn one had she had a mask.

that's what I would logically think @Rosesareyellow

@Cantunscrambleanegg

Two people in my office were in with colds last week, revelling in sharing throat sweets etc - and now another colleague’s off, gasping for breath because asthma means colds knock her out. We’re mostly work from home these days/ being in the office completely optional, so no idea why people would go in (to work or book clubs!) brazenly chuckling about germy colds. Likewise not impressed with the ‘it’s not Covid’ chat without having done a PCR. Just selfish really

My workplace insists we go in unless we are off sick or are waiting for a covid test or have positive test. So yes I've been that person who has dragged themselves in with a stinking cold as I can't keep taking time off with a cold or they will fire me.

But I would be flippin’ furious if someone turned up at a social event with an obvious cold even in non-covid times . It is utterly selfish
And I would think you were massively overreacting to a totally normal situation.

We do actually need to be exposed to bacteria and microbes particularly as children to build up a decent immune response.

My friend is senior in the local children's hospital she's said they are seeing lots more children admitted with "common" illnesses that they did pre pandemic.
Which is a bit worrying as means their immune systems aren't as robust.

It's a hard one OP because people have become generally nervous, personally I'd rather catch the cold than not as I'd rather have a strong functioning immune system.

There is a article here discussing some of the theories around this www.theguardian.com/world/2021/may/16/how-will-isolation-affect-long-term-immunity

@DappledThings

Do people really not get on with normal things when they have a cold? Alright maybe different in the current times but pre-covid I never knew of anyone thinking of colds as anything other than a fact of life. I've never thought anything of anyone turning up somewhere with a cold.

Likewise.

I will be delighted when we can get back to a situation in which a cold is just a cold and not something that attracts any attention at all.

Moreover, the main reason people are getting stinker colds at the moment is that our immune systems have been unnaturally unexposed to ordinary colds etc. The more colds that do the rounds, the better.

I would always have expected someone with a cold to stay away from an indoor social gathering at close quarters. I have always done so myself. It's just common courtesy and common sense, surely? I've never known any different. It's certainly not a post-covid thing in my world.

I've never known anyone take sick leave due to a cold?

I’ve only just noticed this reply to me @ronkey because your bold keeps failing so it’s not clear that you’re responding to people. My comment specifically refers to “indoor social gatherings at close quarters”. Nothing whatsoever to do with work and so sick leave is totally irrelevant. You seem to be responding to people who are making points about social gatherings and trying to make it about work and school. Some PPs (myself included) have actually said during the course of the discussion that we would have to go to work and other necessary activities if we were well enough, but have made the clear distinction between these activities and unnecessary social events. I can’t really understand why you keep mentioning work and transport when the majority of posters (even the ones you are directly replying to) have made it clear that they aren’t speaking about that.

Tbf, you did offer to leave, but I'd be miffed too OP, no one stays at home because they have a cold, unless they are feeling unwell. Employees still have to go to work, children go to school, life goes on. Of course, I, like most others wouldn't like to catch a cold, but it's one of those things you can't really hide from. Imagine if everyone who had a cold stayed at home, oh the shortages we will have then! Covid has made people paranoid and germ-phobic. I bet if you were a paying customer, they'd have asked you to stay, because they want your money.

@Rosesareyellow

But people are far more aware of how infection spreads now. Our perceptions have changed.

I’m sorry but that’s complete drivel - it’s not the 1800s, everyone in living memory knows how disease and infection is spread. Covid can be a serious illness - a cold is not, unless your immune system is extremely compromised. People used to just accept that a cold is something they’d get from time to time, you would keep your distance slightly from someone sniffing and blowing their nose in the corner, you didn’t expect them to hide away at home.

People I know do behave differently, people wash their hands more, avoid touching surfaces when out and about, carry hand sanitiser, keep a distance from other people, avoid crowded spaces if they can, are less likely to shake hands, hug, kiss. That to me says perceptions about infection have changed, of course people have always kept their distance from someone covered in measles, dripping snot, coughing like a sea lion, sneezing into their hands. Now the behaviour changes are more subtle, but they are there.

I have a covid at the moment - as confirmed by PCR test. My initial symptoms were EXACTLY like a cold, and many of my friends who also have covid now (no thanks to the lab cock up that’s meant it’s roared through schools in the south west) have said the same.

I think covid has made people far less tolerant of others spreading their germs about.

And you weren't asked to leave.
You offered to leave and they took you up on your offer.

Here to join the others telling you you should not have gone in the first place with a cold - it's anti-social.

@BurntO

No mask with a cold, of course you weren’t doing the right thing. Stay home. If you pass your cold onto a whole group of people you put them through unnecessary worry and the faff of pcr tests.

That's the issue really. Not so much the cold per se - but the fact that you then have the hassle of having to test.

But will people stop calling the OP selfish - such an overused word.

I bet if you were a paying customer, they'd have asked you to stay, because they want your money

No they would have asked the OP to leave but still keep her money no doubt!

Have you not heard about the 'supercold' going around, due to everyone's immunity wanning during lockdown? I don't want it if I can avoid it. You were being selfish.

But is it a supercold because the cold germs themselves cause particularly bad symptoms or is it a supercold because people are affected more by it because of low immunity?
I hope that as Jonathan Ashworth said, they would be able to extend the testing capability to confirm flu and cold infections too. Would’nt it be great if the investment in testing was utilised for us to really understand cold flu covid and their impacts? As so many people said, colds can be horrendous. It would be a better world with less of them.

The problem is that so many people who don’t want to wear masks haven’t got the balls to say it and therefore say they are ‘mask exempt’, making life a lot harder for those who are genuinely mask exempt. The OP might have genuine medical reasons for not wearing a mask but it doesn’t seem unreasonable to ask the OP to keep everyone else healthy by staying away if mask wearing isn’t possible. I’m guessing they mean until the cold has gone so it’s only a temporary measure.

Id be completely pissed off if someone gave me their cold. I have a cold now and I wear a mask everywhere so other people don't get my germs. You should have stayed at home. This isn't about masks its about consideration for other people.

Dick move to turn up with a cold.

I bet if you were a paying customer, they'd have asked you to stay, because they want your money.

But again, this is the point that people are making. Your example changes the situation from an unnecessary social gathering to a work scenario where people need to earn a living. Of course most people don’t have the luxury of being able to stay home from work or school with a cold. They still have to do the weekly shop etc. but nobody needs to go to a book club and it is selfish and unnecessary to turn up there with a cold and pass it around.

@pianolessons1

Mask exempt? For what reason? The vast majority of people who claim mask exemption to me (I'm an HCP with full access to their notes) it's BS.

This!

Why didn't you get yourself a mask then?

Even way before covid i hated people who were spreading their nasty colds and other viruses by just coming to events and restaurants as if everything is fine. No i don’t want to hear you hacking away at a movie or blowing snotty nose while i eat. 🤢