Tobold's Blog
Thursday, December 14, 2023
 
I have a cold

I have a cold. It isn't a very interesting cold. It doesn't have some fancy acronym or other name. It is just a bit of a cough, a bit of a running nose, and me not feeling very well. The only thing remarkable about it is that it is the first cold I got since the pandemic. Because not only did I never catch COVID, it turned out that social distancing, wearing face masks, washing your hands, and working from home work equally well against a lot of other viral infectious diseases. The cough sirup I still had in stock is past its "best before" date by two years.

It seems that everyone was so eager to get "back to normal" after the pandemic, that we collectively chose to forget the lessons we learned during the COVID times. I think we really should have kept some of the better habits from that time: Working from home when you feel ill, instead of spreading the virus in the office, for example. Or wearing a face mask when ill. The latter probably suffers from the authorities having sold us the necessity to wear face masks "to protect ourselves" during the pandemic; in reality the regular masks were always at best mediocre at protecting the wearer from airborne viruses, but were very useful in protecting the rest of the world from the wearer's viruses.

If people who get a cold would practice some social distancing, work from home, and wear face masks when they have to leave the house, we could reduce the prevalence of the common cold to something a bit less common. And while the common cold has comparatively fewer severe cases and deaths than COVID, I think we can all agree that it isn't pleasant to catch one.

Comments:
I caught the usual number, I think. Never caught Covid though, unless it was asymptomatic or similar to a cold.
 
Very interested in where a person who is retired and does not have any school age children would catch a cold.

Either way I hope you feel better soon!
 
Well, there are social activities that retired people do, and stuff like going out for shopping. "Retired" doesn't mean confined to a home. Yet. :)
 
Not a big surprise for me.
My ex mother in law was so deep into "I need to meet people" land that she jumped the vaccine queue by getting a recommendation from her therapist and then going out every weekend because "I'm immune".
Guess who tested positive two weeks before Christmas that we had planned in a larger group because restrictions were lifted a bit? Guess what we didn't do? Guess who wanted to "go outside for some fresh air" during the two weeks of mandatory isolation?
Yeah...
 
Tobold: "If people who get a cold would practice some social distancing, work from home, and wear face masks when they have to leave the house, we could reduce the prevalence of the common cold to something a bit less common."

Agreed.

I've learned that some cultures (Japan being one) do wear face masks when sick to prevent spreading germs even prior to the pandemic.

I've also worked for a USA employer where being sick was an acceptable reason to work from home.

But sadly yes, these effective practices are mostly not followed in places I've lived. Instead people just medicate themselves to get through work. Thanks to capitalism, it seems like companies only care about employee health because it affects their bottom line.

Hope you get well soon nevertheless.
 
In the US people are so used to going to work or doing general things while sick it doesn't even cross people's minds as being inconsiderate of others. The one time I got Covid it was my relatives who didn't take any precautions and came to my house knowing they were sick, although they didn't know they had Covid.

I've fully embraced things like curbside pickup for groceries not only because of the convenience but also to just not have to be around people in crowded grocery stores. Far too many people will go out and just cough all over things are clean their runny noses with their bare hands and then touch things. It is disgusting, especially when people do it with open air produce. I may be extreme but I'm one of those that washes all my produce even if it is prewashed. I even go as far as disinfecting stuff before it goes in the fridge or pantry.
 
I managed to avoid COVID until this week, it feels bad. Now, for the first time, I'm at home with this weird COVID crap, coughing all the day (no syrup manages to make it better) and waiting to get better soon.
 
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