If you know you have flu and get a flight

[Lyra25]

You should wear a mask?
I am definitely going to take a mask for myself in future because I can’t take sitting next to people with a hacking cough, running nose and looking really unwell. I’ve just got off a flight like this and it was absolutely torturous for me.
but aibu to think if you know you’re unwell (not just sniffles or cold but flu) you should wear a mask on a flight

I personally wouldn’t bother, in such an enclosed space, a mask will do absolutely nothing.

If you have the actual flu you wouldn't get on a flight because you wouldn't be able to make it through the airport.

You're describing a cold.

If you had flu you wouldn't be well enough to catch a flight!

But yes, any sort of viral infection warrants a mask imo.

Can we please stop spreading this myth. Flu can also be mild or asymptomatic. It does not have to be severe to have flu. Now obviously unless you test for it then you won’t know for definite that you have it but being able to get out of bed does not mean that you can’t have it.

https://www.cedars-sinai.org/newsroom/yahoo-life-why-does-the-flu-make-some-people-sick-but-not-others/

I'd be very surprised if anyone genuinely affected by flu even made it to the airport.

Please see above.

I saw it 🤷‍♂️

Does the passenger the OP describes sound asymptomatic to you?

No, me neither.

People are just totally inconsiderate when it comes to spreading their germs. I was in Tescos today, about to pick up a single roll for my lunch and there was a woman standing in front of the display where the rolls and cakes were kept absolutely coughing her guts up all over them.. Just gross! Needless to say I didn’t get one.

You said anyone genuinely affected by flu but the symptoms can also be mild or moderate. Not just severe or asymptomatic.

Ancient myth. Flu affects different people very differently.

Ancient myth. Flu affects different people very differently.

Surely we all learned during COVID that 2 people can have a virus and experience very different symptoms - of course someone can have flu and catch a flight! Yes, some people with flu are too ill to do that, but some aren't. Just as COVID sent some people to bed, gave some people a bit of a sniffle, and some people were asymptomatic.

There were others with light coughs and sniffles, this person had a hacking cough, looked unwell and his wife was feeling cold while everyone else was hot on the plane. He had a flu or virus worse than a cold

Not the same illness but I recently came back from holiday and my child announced on the way to the airport they felt ill. They were then violently sick as we waited to board. What was I meant to do? I can’t be stranded abroad when I have work to get back to. We boarded and came home as it was the least worst option. Not everyone wants to delay travel, especially if they are already overseas.

Flu doesn't affect me badly at all. Mild headache & slight tiredness were the only symptoms.

Are you sure it was flu?

So if flu is asymptomatic then presumably we all have it a lot of the time anyway? So what's the point of asking someone who can't breathe well to wear a mask?

How do you know when you have flu? I wouldn't have a clue, do you get tested for some reason

This isn’t true. An N95 will protect you.

Stop trying to make masks happen.

I've always suspected it as whenever DH has had it I seemed to get away with it or have very mild symptoms.
Last time I did a COVID - type lateral flow test from boots to check & sure enough tested positive but no more symptoms than a mild headache & tiredness

Yes tested positive

I’ve had severe long covid for 2 1/2 years

I sure you don’t believe in that either.

And don’t tell me to ‘stop’ anything. MYOB

I agree but also I think you mean things like colds, right? The person you describe sounds more like a cold than flu

both suck tbf

I did take a flight with a severely runny nose a few years ago. I wasn’t ill or contagious at all, I’d just got really irritated sinuses after having had a cold a few weeks previously, which got set off by some allergens on the way.

The person next to me must have been panicking like anything but they wouldn’t have caught anything.