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?

Well, number one you’re a dick for assuming it was her. I always cough on planes because of the dry air, you have absolutely no idea whether she gave you Covid or not.

Number two, you’re a dick for snooping over her shoulder while she was working, and reading stuff you know you weren’t supposed to read. It was none of your fucking business.

Number three, you’re a dick for wanting to tell tales on her to her employers.

Wow just wow at this response

So you’re a former lawyer…. So you know full well you have no evidence that a) her coughing was Covid or that b) that you caught Covid off her

and you’re a disgrace for snooping so much as to what was on her laptop and then thinking it’s a ‘win’ on here that you saw every detail of a settlement agreement. what a deeply unpleasant thing to do. I could never imagine going to that extent to read the detail you read on her laptop! Perhaps, as a former corporate lawyer, you could have done the decent thing and advised her that her laptop screen was too much on display.

unbelievable

We are not in 2020. She had the right to assess her own health and travel if she felt well enough. Just as you have decided not to go on your half term trip. Get a grip.

@Notjustanother tbh it sounds like you'd have more success showing the passenger next you committed a data breach if you could read everything she was writing

If you could see her name and the name of her firm it could be a sackable offence. Data protection breaches happen when you work in public so working in public is usually against company policy

Also I'm a personal injury solicitor and I know we are the pariahs of the legal world. You corporate types would look down on us with contempt. But I do know my stuff and with this type of thing you'd never prove causation (where you got covid).

Op - you realise people with asthma can spend a lot of the winter with terrible sounding coughs?

My DD sounds like a 40 a day smoker. She won't shake off a cough for weeks and weeks.

When she had covid however she was completely asymptomatic! Many people are.we only knew she had it as we were testing the whole family because i had symptoms.

You have live with risk of disease, its life. Its extremely expensive and inconvenient to cancel travel - most people simply won't do it.

Wrong again. If the OP saw the names of the woman's clients or confidential information relating to them it would be grounds for dismissal. This woman's name and the name of her employer are not state secrets. 🙄

Well if that's true, you would know that you have the burden of proof. You can try complaining but I still hold firm that you will get absolutely nowhere and I'm not sure exactly what it is you hope to achieve

I totally get why you are so angry, and it would cross my mind to do what you want to do but I wouldn't once I had calmed down!

MN has been full to the brim of complacency re Covid for the last three and a half years. Of course, you'll be told you are being "vindictive" for giving a shit about your health being unnecessarily affected (possibly longterm) by an educated woman who has kindly provided you with her name and work location!

There was a thread earlier this week where someone tested positive for COVID and asked should she travel. The majority said oh yes of course she should, as she felt fine it was absolutely ok.

This is a bit different but really this is why if you're ill you really oughtn't to. It's just downright selfish.

No evidence this woman had Covid or gave it to her 🤷‍♀️ so yes the OP is being vindictive

Complain to the airline.
If they receive enough such complaints they may change their own policy re flying while sick.

She has no proof whatsoever this woman gave her covid. There are plenty of colds going round too. And plenty of us have explained that asthma and other conditions can cause a chronic cough.

I am tired of people treating me like I am contagious because I cough. I test regularly for COVID because it could land me in ICU and I need antivirals swiftly. Coughing doesn't mean COVID.

Meh. Id suck it up and get on with my life to be honest.

It's doing the rounds so you could have caught it anywhere. You'd have to be a serious busy body with lots of time on your hands to contact her work

I'm a bit worried by the spite displayed by OP. She has decided with no proof (and won't be able to prove it) that this woman made her ill and is now threatening her career after deciding to snoop and read her laptop.

It's really something else.

@greenhydrangea she is being vindicitive by reporting her unsubstantiated theories about their employees responsibility for her covid infection the employer. Flu is also very serious for a lot of people, do you support reporting unsubstantiated theories how you got flu to people's employers. Covid seems to have broken some people's moral compasses.

Who were you flying with? Some airlines in Europe have a clause against travelling with COVID or symptoms, I met it with Eurowings this September.
I don't know what exactly can be done when someone like that appears on the plane, but it isn't generally true that she wasn't doing anything wrong.

Anyway, we do take some masks with us (proper FFP, not the basic ones) when traveling and would use them in that case. We shouldn't have to, but some people are idiots.

@KimberleyClark the incubation time of covid is about 48 hours. If you didn’t get ill till a week later you almost certainly caught covid somewhere else. It’s absolutely everywhere at the moment.

The woman could have tested and got a negative as I did for the first few days - only knew what it was as I had also had a positive PCR. If she felt well enough to travel, well enough to work and didn't have the more usual dry cough she could have well not realised it was covid at all.

Complaining to her law firm about her travelling whilst unwell only makes you look ridiculous. Complaining about the data breach where you said nothing at the time and read the document over her shoulder raises bigger question about you rather than her imo.

Doesn't matter whether it was covid or a filthy cold she should at least wear a mask and preferably not travel. Would I report her? No, that's a bit extreme.

However I assume that people won't cancel their travel plans and will fly with covid so I do wear a ffp3 mask when flying. I don't bother with masks at any other time but I have caught colds, flu on every flight for years before covid. In 2019 I ended up in hospital with pneumonia following a holiday where I picked something up on the flight.
You have to be pretty comfortable with it though, on my last flight in September I was the only person in a mask and some people seem to have a problem with it. Don't understand why as it can't impact them. They do help prevent infection especially if you are sat next to typhoid Mary.

Maybe for some variant, generally it is 2-5 days, so well within the range.

Loads of people are ill at the moment, I’ve just got off a flight and loads were coughing like that. It’s the time of year. You could have caught Covid anywhere, it’s rife. YABU

Some of the responses on here are very odd.

Woman is not at fault for working on a confidential document in public. Apparently I am in the wrong for not policing her professional conduct and reminding her not to do this.

Woman is not accountable for travelling when clearly very unwell. It’s my fault for not moving (even though there was no space elsewhere).

At what stage do people take any responsibility for their own actions?