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?

It's weird you're even considering this. There is no way of knowing if she gave you covid. You also don't know if she'd tested negative or why she was flying.

Coughs can linger for weeks, especially from infections like COVID, long after the infectious stage.

Also you don't know she didn't test negative as pp has said, the LFT/RAT tests are in many cases not showing positive to the latest strains until 4, 5, 6 days into infection or more.

We just have to live with the blasted bug alas, and there will be colateral damage from that for sure, but thats how man has survived (or not, as the case may be) every other miserable disease through time. Back in the day if you caught TB you were likely a gonner, but people pressed on regardless.

I absolutely agree with your comments. People hide behind legally OK and morally OK or not OK. Fwiw, I think you have every right to do any of the things you mention. I wish you a speedy recovery and hope you can plan a BIG trip next holidays. Hope you feel better soon.

One of my former colleagues has the most dreadful chronic cough linked to an ongoing health condition. It is not in any way infectious to other people, but she got no end of dirty looks from people during covid times, clearly assuming that she had covid. The OP has no right to assume that her fellow passenger had covid or that she gave it to her. There is no evidence.

But the passenger wasn't travelling 'whilst really ill' though was she?? She just had a bad cough. she was able to work on the flight. I've had bad colds before where the cough has lingered for weeks & weeks afterwards & air-conditioning would definitely trigger it. The cough sounds awful but the cold has mostly gone and I'm feeling much better. Don't travel on planes OP if you don't want to catch germs. 😒

Honestly op. I understand you're disappointed but while you strongly suspect that this woman gave you covid, the reality is that she could have been travelling with a chest infection and the asymptomatic person beside you actually gave you covid.
That's the nature of the horrible thing .
Some people are fine, others really suffer.
I think lots of people work on flights and it was a bit shitty of you to be looking over her shoulder reading her work. I'm not what you want her to say to you after your email. I strongly suspect she will just ignore you .

You can get covid from anywhere, it's an airborne virus. There was a woman on the plane you decided you didn't like, so have convinced yourself you got it from her, despite not even knowing if she even had it. Righty ho....

I would absolutely report her. Her behavior is horrendous and selfish. She didn't want to loose out on money spent, etc, so she puts that on you. An N95 would be the least she could do.

Why do people act like Covid is the single cause of coughing? I know we’ve been living with it for a while but cast your mind back 4 years and you’ll remember that coughing definitely existed then.

My nanna used to cough like you’re describing. She had a number of health conditions. She died 20 years ago so she definitely never had Covid.

When I did actually have Covid I didn’t start coughing a lot until the day before I was out of the 10 day isolation period and coughed for about 6 weeks after, needed an inhaler to shift it, so I was barking like a dog (spent a fortune on tena lady) long after I was contagious.

I’d be pissed off too if I was too ill to go on holiday but it’s just one of those things, it’s nobody’s fault. To even think of contacting this woman’s employer is just bizarre.

She faces the risk of being sacked for gross misconduct if you report her for breach of client confidentiality. This seems a bit vindictive and over the top - to destroy someone’s career because she spoiled your holiday.

For the 99th time - having a cough does not automatically mean a person has covid! I get a bad cough at least once a year, lasting weeks - I've never had covid (not in the UK, up until recently we were required to test). OP could have got covid from anyone on that flight. You don't have to be coughing to have covid.

If anyone's behaviour is "horrendous and selfish" it is the OPs, with her making a point of reading what was on her laptop screen and then emailing her.

I think it's horrendous and selfish to assume everyone with a cough must be contagious and then try to get them into trouble for it tbh

When I had covid I didn't cough at all. It could have been a silent, non coughing person who had covid in the plane.

Exactly. Me too. My only symptom every time I had Covid was severe fatigue. No cough, runny nose, sore throat. It’s a strange virus - DS
vomits with it for a day and then is fine. No cough either.

It’s just as likely she was at the tail end of a cold and you caught Covid from someone at your hotel/work conference. You would have been mixing with lots of people?

Yes! Contact the law firm! She shouldn’t be working on the settlement agreement in public.

as an add on - nothing to report re. Travelling while, no laws/ regulations have been breached and none of the SRA principles breached.

@Fanlover1122 No, no laws etc broken re travel (particularly as nobody actually has any proof the woman had Covid). But neither does what the woman was doing on her laptop have anything whatsoever to do with op. Why on earth would you stick your nose into a stranger’s life like that? Just to get someone into trouble? People need to get a life.

It’s a beach of her regulatory obligations - solicitors should not be working on matters where members of the public are able to see the docs, including sensitive personal data. If the original OP is still a solicitor - she has a personal obligation to report material breaches of the Code to the SRA.

@Fanlover1122 - but the OP’s original intention was to report the woman to her employer for supposedly making her ill. When she realised she wouldn’t get anywhere with that, she started bringing up the fact that she could see the document the woman was working on and decided she could go down that route to get her revenge! She isn’t concerned about her ‘personal obligation’ as a solicitor, if she was then surely she could have just had a quiet word with the other woman from one professional to another to say she could see her laptop screen. Instead she stored that fact away and was thinking of using her little secret to potentially get the woman into trouble for ‘giving her covid’ despite not having a shred of evidence that it was her she got it from - nasty and spiteful!

I know this thread has been running for a while so I hope the OP is over the worst of her covid, is thinking clearer and has decided against doing anything.

It's a normal human instinct though to dob in people who've done you wrong even on an unrelated issue.

Would I report my friendly next door neighbour if their road tax was out of date? No. Would I report that guy from across the road who parks like a twat on the corner and makes it difficult for everyone else? Maybe.

If you don't want to be reported for wrongdoing then either play by the rules or don't piss off any of the people who witness you breaking them.

If you don't want to be reported for wrongdoing then either play by the rules or don't piss off any of the people who witness you breaking them.

Aka if you have asthma, copd, cystic fibrosis or another lung condition some people will use that to justify holding you to higher standards than people who don't have chronic conditions

Aka ableism

Either report people for breaking rules or don't. but using health conditions to justify it is pretty vile

Indeed.

The OP is fake, but some of the replies are not.

I agree with this, if the OP had a genuine concern about a confidentiality breach she could have spoken to the woman to let her know her screen was visible.

These type of decisions shouldn’t be taken emotionally, either it’s a genuine concern or it’s not.

It shouldn’t be banked for a later date when the OP is pissed off, it’s disingenuous.

OP said they would take advice to get well before acting, but in subsequent post emailed the woman! I do find this intrusive and inappropriate and a lapse of OP’s judgment.

Travelling while knowingly infectious with symptoms of Norovirus or Covid is selfish but we don’t know that to be the case at all here at all.

Many coughs are chronic and not infectious. As mentioned some are even genetic and lifelong, like CF.

OP would’ve been exposed to many people by flying in and out of Berlin before her holiday, however assuming it was also work related (traveling with her colleague), it’s just bad luck.

Hopefully OP has recovered now and gained perspective, also able to claim some of the losses back and take holiday later.