Coughing is becoming dangerous – and not for medical reasons. Cough once and you get dirty looks, cough twice and they’ll run away like mice, cough the third time and you’ll be squeezed like a lime.
I have mild seasonal asthma and right now the flowers are blossoming and there is a lot of dust in the air which triggers my asthma….causing me to cough.
I’m sure it’s not a COVID cough because I have had it for weeks and it’s still just a cough. Also, I’m always starving: which sick person would dream about eating spicy tomato basil spaghetti with a sweet and sour Israeli side salad? Oops, I’m almost drooling just thinking about it………….
Before the coronavirus we were free to cough and sneeze, and people would only say “bless you!” (although hardly anyone knows that this blessing is a legacy of the Bubonic plague). Nowadays a cough may well lead to “f*ck you!”, let the fight begin (no spitting or biting)!
As well as fight, the opposite reaction is flight. The other day my mum was sitting on the balcony, sipping her coffee when someone walked along the streets beneath her, and coughed. The way she quickly raced back in, shut the door and closed the curtains, was so hilarious! Needless to say, the coffee cup was left out on the balcony long enough for the last germ to have died a dozen times.
Look, I now we have to be careful. But you CAN be too careful. Roll on the day when we can cough and sneeze again without being regarded as dangerously anti-social.
And in the meantime, may your God go with you.
