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?!

Exactly. If you’re vulnerable surely the onus is on you to protect yourself? It’s winter! If we all stayed home every time we got a slight sniffle the economy would go under

I don't have a cold/bug, but if it is cold, my nose streams and I keep sniffing so I probably look like I have a cold.
I wont be avoiding places to appease stranger's health anxiety.
If someone is that vulnerable to bugs right now, they are the ones that should be avoiding crowded places.

Last time I had a cold the cough persisted for over 3 weeks. Do you seriously think that people should nit go out for that length of time?

Only a week does sound a bit potentially contagious.

But I dont know how the man knew it wasnt asthma or cystic fibrosis or weeks after the cold or just a tickle.

Someone who has had cold symptoms can be contagious for a fortnight. Telling someone to stay home every time they have a cold is fucking bonkers.

Some woman coughed in my face in the butchers this morning, disgusting!

A lot of people have never moved on from that.

Probably will still be contagious, and was possibly contagious before symptoms started fully 🤷‍♀️

The NHS has now said that self-isolating during the winter actually harms us more than it helps. Sure, stay home when you’re actually very unwell- flu and Covid, and of course stay away from the elderly, but you’re very ignorant. Lockdown saved lives immediately from Covid - but long- term wise lowered immunity. People in the aftermath got a lot sicker from simple colds! they hadn’t been exposed to viruses for a while, and their immune system struggled.

anyway, the NHS is on its knees due to mismanagement. It’s really that simple. They should be able to manage the usual yearly sicknesses - I mean, for god’s sake - flu season happens every year.

if we stayed home for every sniffle nothing would ever get done.

I’m just trying to imagine what my manager would say if I phoned in sick with a sniffly nose (not even blocked!) and a tickle cough.

I have had a cough for about 18 months. It's metastatic lung cancer. It sounds absolutely awful but no one has actually commented yet, I just get lots of evil looks. I feel like buying a T shirt that says It's not covid it's cancer.

When I get a tickle in my throat it’s never a dainty cough! It leads onto a full coughing fit!
It can totally catch me off guard and I always feel embarrassed!

100% agree

So basically youve started this to reassure yourself that you coughing in a public place is absolutely fine and the man was a nutter who should be admonished and shouldn't have left his house?

Everyone telling you otherwise has been shouted down. Why start the post if youre not willing to listen to anything aside from your own view?

As a fellow post nasal drip sufferer that can linger on for weeks I hear you!
Its and awful tickle and you just can’t stop coughing.

It wasn’t work though. You didn’t have to go.

When the government spent millions on scare-tactic advertising about "looking medics in the eye" and scared the bejesus out of millions.

Colds/coughs/snotty noses have gone from an inconvenient fact of life which rolls around every winter in 2019, to something which means you absolutely must stay out of circulation with in 2025, in order to "protect the vulnerable" who nobody gave two hoots about pre-pandemic.

It’s horrible. Thankfully I had surgery this year which means I no longer get horrible sinus infections as soon as it drops below 15 degrees but the post nasal drip just won’t go away

It’s horrible. Thankfully I had surgery this year which means I no longer get horrible sinus infections as soon as it drops below 15 degrees but the post nasal drip just won’t go away

Don't call me a liar. You yourself are the one "mistaken". This week there are 3140 people in hospital with flu, 2660 admitted this week, a 55% increase on the previous week. The NHS website says there are currently enough flu patients in hospital to fill three hospital trusts.

Just because you want to believe something isn't true, doesn't make it so.

Some of the posts on here make me think we've gone back in time to 2020.

Some of you need serious help with your health anxiety.

Doesn't sound like great coughing technique. You were probably spraying aerosolised particles at the poor man. Good reason to stay at home.

I'd be repelled by someone with a productive type of cough but I would not say anything. I'd probably leave my coffee or food though.
A slight tickle, no problem.

It's not healthy anxiety if an elderly man is concerned about catching a nasty bug. The impact of any virus is worse in the elderly or vulnerable.

Tbf if most people say an op is BU unless they are on a total wind up the op's do tend to take other views on board.

I imagine like a lot of AIBU the op knows they arent (because she isnt 😬) but the ridiculous overreaction from the guy has made her wonder a bit.

He is being ridiculous. If he wants to keep away from people with colds, he should have a coffee at home. The vast majority of people carry on with their lives when they have a cold. People need to factor that in if they are genuinely worried about the risk.