Just got shouted at in a coffee shop for coughing in public 🥴

[wildgreyocean]

I know I’m not being unreasonable here but I just need some reassurance! I was in a coffee shop after popping to the shops and got a tickle in my throat. I’ve had a cold all week but nothing too severe. I coughed and next thing I know an old man is shouting at me that I’m being selfish and should be self isolating at home, and “don’t I know the NHS is on its knees?!”

AIBU to think this is a total overreaction to a cough?!

This thread is interesting but no one will change their minds
There are the entitled who carry on regardless and I doubt they’ll change

Nurses working while having even a mild respiratory illness have caused neonates to die in some maternity wards. A common cold is something that no one should be cavalier about spreading in this day and age when we know how these illnesses spread and we know how to take simple steps to reduce the risk.

Wait? You think mask wearing to prevent the spread of Covid was “hysteria”

Agree
Nice
common sense
to the point post

Where are these social responsibilities posted?
Asking for a lot of ND people.

And OP works for the nhs

I think the entire thing surrounding it was hysteria.

It’s been largely shown that the masks we were told to wear were pretty useless at doing anything. Lockdown was insane - one hour of outdoor time a day. My mum got screamed at because she stopped to chat with a friend (six feet apart) outdoors! The endless posts online about people picking up things that weren’t essential. I think a lot of what happened during the pandemic was hysteria, yes.

Source for this outrageous claim?

I hope we can start to move away from this new culture of blaming people for spreading common viruses. I roll my eyes whenever people go on about whichever "selfish" person gave them a cold, as if it was a deliberate act. We're social animals who live in communities. Get vaccinated if there is one and you can, wash your hands, cover your mouth when you cough, etc., but colds and minor illnesses circulating in society is a part of life. It would be disastrous for the economy and people's social skills (as we saw during and post-Covid) if everyone stays home and only goes out for absolutely essential trips until every sign of a cold is gone.

I cough due to allergies, dry heating, cold etc.. What do you want me to do, not go anywhere?

I simply don’t believe that’s true.

“I think the entire thing surrounding it was hysteria. It’s been largely shown that the masks we were told to wear were pretty useless at doing anything.”

That is incorrect. In fact the masks were shown to slow down the spread by significantly reducing the risk of transmission.

https://www.phc.ox.ac.uk/news/comprehensive-review-confirms-masks-reduce-covid-19-transmission

Yeah, if you've had a cold all week I do think it's a bit selfish to be going out and about to places like coffee shops. I mean, it's not something that you NEED to do, is it? It's quite a selfish thing to do.

I was ill with a virus in October. I was left with the worst post-viral cough for week after (still there a bit in the mornings) and was paranoid that people would think I was contagous whenever I started with a coughing fit. If anyoen had said anything I would just have explained that it was just a post viral thing from weeks ago/probable long COVID, but what could you say? You'd have to explain that actually, yes, you ARE ill with a cold. Not great, you should aim to have more of a social conscience, I think.

Largely focusing on respirators and ensuring they’re worn correctly - which masks during lockdown weren’t.

Same. I would like to see the research and article on this.

Your paranoia about catching minor respiratory ailments is yours and yours alone to manage, calling people “selfish” for leaving the house is so very 2020.

I think this is a reasonable commentary on it.

The guy handled it wrongly, but equally the op is not accepting he had no ability to know she was apparently not contagious (it's reasonable to assume someone coughing is, depending on the cough vs throat clearing), and she really didn't "need" to be in a coffee shop if she was contagious, so as far as he knew she had done both of those things, which actually, yeah, I think is a bit grotty and I'd have been giving it a wide berth.

But he should not have shouted.

Others should stay at home all year, but you - with your lingering cold - are entitled to sit in an enclosed space and spread your germs because

Life doesn’t work that way, unfortunately. You can’t coop yourself up in your house every time you get a cold. I would be going insane.

A mild cold isn't a reason to not go out.

A lingering cough doesn't mean you're ill FFS. A cough can last a couple of months for me after a cold has cleared but I'm not ill.

Oh OP you did nothing wrong.

I am shocked so many people think you did.

Woman with slight cough goes to coffee shop. It’s hardly headline news. And it doesn’t make you a threat to society either. The man who shouted at you sounds deranged. Loads of people have coughs and colds at the moment it cannot be avoided it is called being human. Only by living as a hermit could it be avoided.

People seem to love having something to moan about. I hope you enjoyed your hot chocolate and feel better soon.

No it covers all levels of masking from simple cotton to FFP2
”Masks, including cloth face coverings and disposable medical masks, help reduce the spread of respiratory droplets and aerosols. Respirators, such as N95 and FFP2 devices, are designed to filter out smaller airborne particles and fit more tightly to the face, providing a higher level of protection.”

RSV is a major killer of under 5s globally, with it being significantly higher risk for infants as their immune systems are still developing. It's one of the leading causes of pneumonia and bronchiolitis in infants.

RSV presents as a typical cold to older children and adults, often with milder symptoms.

While I doubt there's a source for the poster that you're quoting, as it would be extremely hard to trace back to patient zero, neonates and infants social pools are extremely small, and limited usually to hospital staff and immediate family members.

Not relevant to you going to a coffee shop really, but it's not an outrageous lie. Not being provable by virtue of a documented case doesn't mean that the associated risk and probability don't exist.

Infants do catch infections, even in hospitals, and those infections may be transmittable infections that have come from others, and it can kill them.

I’m asking the commenter for a source for her claim that nurses with common colds have killed babies.

Why didn't you just tell him to fuck off? Thats what I'd have done.

Right, but what I am saying is neonatal infection risk from staff illness is well established; individual causation is rarely publishable. Demanding sources misunderstands how healthcare evidence works.

You would be unreasonable to dismiss what is being said as an "outrageous lie", which is what you did, because the evidence you're demanding isn't publicly available.