Passenger travelling whilst really ill

[Notjustanother]

Took a flight to Berlin last week. Woman next to me was coughing the entire flight; deep phlegmmy cough and spitting stuff up. Clearly should have been in bed. It was grim. As a minimum she should have been wearing a mask.

Five days later I felt very ill, and tested positive for Covid. A former colleague who also happened to be on the flight, sitting in front of this woman, has also tested positive.

Since then I have lost half a stone in weight, been horrendously ill and am having difficulty breathing. Today we were supposed to be going away for a much looked forward to half term holiday, we have had to cancel and pay the £200 insurance excess.

The woman was on a mini break with her husband, but did some work on the flight. She works for a law firm.

Would I be unreasonable to contact the law firm and complain - especially as she was working for them during the flight. I have her name.

I am furious that her rank selfishness has made me (and others on the flight) so ill. There could be no doubt that she was going to infect others on the flight, and must have known that there was a high risk that she had Covid.

I think she needs to be made accountable for her actions, or at the very least be made aware of how her actions have affected others. AIBU?

So what about the people who have experienced post viral illness following flu? Or was that a result of them having the flu vaccination?

What about those who have had ‘long Covid’ and weren’t vaccinated?

First of all you have no evidence it was her. You can be asymptomatic for covid. Multiple people on the plane probably had it.

It's also a product of the system. She had a flight booked. A flight that you can't move without significant financial penalty. Insurance won't pay out for covid, they won't pay out unless you get a note saying you weren't fit to fly. She may well not have been able to afford the new flights, accommodation etc. She may have had to get home for childcare reasons.

Unfortunately the system regarding international travel is so bloody expensive I'd honestly have to feel like I was dying not to get on that plane. I'd get on a plane with something I wouldn't go to work with because I wouldn't be able to afford the extra last minute flight when I felt better and accommodation meanwhile if insurance didn't pay out.

I’m amazed at all the people who defend to the hilt someone’s right to fly with Covid (because it’s legal, you know!). Even though they do so with the certain knowledge that it will make others on the plane ill.

YOU DONT KNOW SHE HAD COVID!!!!

Absolutely, this thread should serve as a salutary warning to anyone who knowingly travels with Covid…

Again, YOU DONT KNOW SHE HAD COVID!!!!

I guess there are a lot of entitled “Women with a cough” types on MN who hate the idea of selfish actions catching up with them.

I am a woman with a cough on planes because the dry air aggravates my asthma. This includes hacking up phlegm sometimes because I also have chronic sinusitis. You'd be told to fuck off if you got all haughty with me and tried to suggest I shouldn't be on a plane.

She's as allowed to be on the flight as you are. Contacting her employer would be bang out of order, and would do nothing but paint you as being batshit.

You also don't know you caught covid from her. It could have been from anybody. My husband coughs and it tends to be very chesty and productive. People might assume he's carrying some virus or bug and shoot him daggers. But as you can't catch cystic fibrosis they're being a tad silly and judgemental.

This. I’ve had tonnes of chesty coughs as I’m very prone to them when I get a cold. The stage where it’s phlegmy is when I’m basically well and the virus is well on its way out. When I was ill with Covid, the cough wasn’t remotely productive.

What was it about her, OP, that makes you say she was really ill, as a phlegmy cough doesn’t actually say really ill to me.

OP I am appalled at the number of apologists for this woman. Sure, with a phlegmmy cough she might not have had Covid and sure, there are asymptomatic people you could catch it from, but given both you and the man in front then caught it it seems far more likely that she had it. And either didn't test or chose to travel in the knowledge she was positive. As for those saying you could wear a mask, has everything been forgotten about that- masks are mainly to prevent those coughing from spreading their germs!
It just comes across that the vast majority are so focused on not letting Covid get in the way of normal life they have forgotten how badly some people can be impacted.

I think you are being ridiculous. You can't prove that you got covid from this woman, it could have been anyone on the plane, or even your colleague who infected you.

You should not have been looking at her laptop the way you did. I've sat next to plenty of people on laptops, other than a cursory glance I look away, as what they are doing is none of my business. You, apparantly, had a jolly good read of everything on her screen!!

Contacting a woman you don't know, from details you got off her laptop, really is beyond the pale, and the only person coming across badly here is you.

Seriously, what do you expect people to do? Cancel trips they've saved hard for, that may have cost thousands, because they've got a cough or a cold?

Since air travel began, there will have been numerous people on a flight with some kind of virus or infection. Some of them will know they've got it, some will be in the incubation stage.

Nobody has responsibility to worry about who else might be on their flight. If someone is that vulnerable to coughs and colds, it's their choice whether to go out in public or not.

I was about to say the exact same thing!
covid coughs are dry!
some people think everyone with any type of cough has Covid 🤣
Covid is long gone, we now just get on with a normal life like we do with a cold or flu!

This is very bad behaviour on the part of the woman, which in the beforetimes (pre-Covid) would just be that, like someone kicking your seat from behind or getting drunk and obnoxious on the flight. If you were upset by her behaviour you should really have pulled her up on it at the time. It's not obnoxious because you got ill -- it is just obnoxious. Unfortunately Covid turned us all into censorious cowards who won't challenge anyone in person but attempt to punish them later from a distance. In the past it was also well established that flights make you ill because all the air is circulated. We all accepted that, annoying though it is, like endless security checks and all the other hassles. Planes are germ boxes. This woman was just inconsiderate. You don't know what was behind it, who knows why she was travelling whilst sick, we never know what is happening for others unless we ask. Which now, from behind our keyboards we never do. The moment has passed to challenge her.

I get your feeling, I believe that's how I contacted covid for the first time. I was on a bus travelling back from Glasgow. I was on the last leg, from Manchester to Sheffield, not a long journey. But a woman sat behind me the whole trip home, coughing really bad, I should have put a mask on, but i didn't. A couple of days later I tested positive.
But she should have stayed at home, or had a mask on, this was 2022. But if I had a bad cough and was on public transport, even now I would mask up, as I wouldn't want to make anyone poorly. Even if I didn't know if it was covid or not.
Sadly I doubt her work would do anything, but I think she was a bit selfish, masks are a bit annoying, but would have helped her not spreading her germs to everyone else on the plane.

Are people really this crazy over covud still? It's basically just a cold and most people have acknowledged that so that's why people don't gave to isolate anymore. Also you sound that crazy over it I bet you took the jabs didn't you? If you did take the jabs why are you going mad you should be protected shouldn't you?
I bet you wish everyone was on lockdown again don't you?

This happened to me recently. You have my sympathy, I have also been quite poorly with it and it has had a number of knock on effects for me too.

To be honest though I just see it as the 'cost of doing business'. Anyone who goes into a public area, unmasked is exposing themselves to the risk of getting covid or another illness - you roll the dice.

There were people coughing all over our flight, on the transfers, at the airport - everywhere. Could have literally got it anywhere. Someone gave it to the lady sat next to you.

I would not send the email.

If I put a mask on whilst suffering the long standing after cough... it would just make me cough worse because of the fact it dries the mouth out and makes you hot. I know because I remember how awful it was when we didn't have a choice.

It's not just a cold believe me. I have been horrendously ill with it.

Who is looking after your DC while you isolate, why couldn't they have taken the DC away on the holiday?

Last year I flew home from Spain with an horrendous cough, it was to the point of retching. This was all from the Aircon in my room which dried my mouth out, morphing into a Sore Throat. I went to the Pharmacy for OTC medicine and sipped cold drinks the entire flight. I was looked at like I'd got the Plague, it definitely wasn't Covid, or contagious. You don't know where you got Covid from. It could have been someone in the Airport lounge, and people like me are still allowed to fly, even if we are coughing.

This. I have a pretty much year round cough due to allergies and it's made worse if the air is dry. I won't be wearing a mask as it makes me cough more.

I was actually told on here a few years ago that it's impossible for a mask to make me cough, it would help!

Again, this isn't really true .

People have had long Covid from infections in 2020 before vaccines were introduced .

You sound absolutely awful! Hopefully it’s just the effects of being ill and you’ll go back to normal soon!
IF (a big IF!) the woman had covid, she probably didn’t even know, not many people still do a covid test every time they feel sick! She had a cough/cold but felt well enough to travel so she did!
Are you suggesting we live indefinitely in lockdown times, always testing, always isolating? Maybe that’s for you but it certainly isn’t how I want to live my life!
Travelling in enclosed spaces has always come with the risk of picking up bugs, not everyone that’s infectious would have such an obvious cough that you could spy on them and then tell them off with a bat sh** crazy email!
Thankfully you saw a bit of sense and didn’t email her employer! That would truly have been a despicable thing to do!
Im sorry you got sick and missed your holiday but unfortunately it’s one of them things that happens and the exact reason you get travel insurance. Hope you feel better soon!

OP, this thread should serve as a salutary warning to YOU.

Vastly over-reaching your powers of diagnosis, making poor decisions when you are ill, and potentially compromising yourself professionally.

There could have been ANYTHING wrong with this woman!! People with cystic fibrosis can have severe coughs and thick mucus! You have no idea you caught covid from her!!

Realistically what do you expect her workplace to do? Would you be happy if your boss reprimanded you for something you did on your own time?!?

you can’t prove it was her that gave you covid, it could have been anyone, a member of the flight crew, another passenger - you’re usually lay contagious just at the start, anyway, not at the ‘hacking death cough’ end of things.

sorry you got covid, it sucks, but that’s life now.

'really ill?' yet she felt up to doing some work.
She had a cough OP, get over it.

You all share the same air on a flight so no point in moving