(Snippets from the frontline)
COVID-19: Stigmatized by a cough
I was pushing my shopping cart in an aisle with other nearby 6-foot-socially-distant customers. Close by was an employee stocking shelves who started coughing into her elbow for about five seconds.
Like cockroaches in a kitchen when you turn on the light, everyone scattered, with carts banging into each other for a frantic escape. The grocery employee quickly realized the panic she caused.
That’s right, we cannot cough in public without fear of creating a stampede. There are other less harmful things you can do, like the usual senior-failing of unintentionally passing gas. Of course, being embarrassed is not as bad as giving someone a fatal virus.
As for the employee, when I saw her a few minutes later, she was wearing a mask.
Kudos to her.
Who would have thought, coughing, like passing gas, can make a crowd scatter.
Gene Uzawa Dorio, M.D.
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