On having a chronic cough (1: On the buses)

It is said that many of us have the power to make someone look up or look in our direction by focusing intently on the one whose attention we want to attract. I am quite good at it though I don't claim to have extraordinary powers of telepathy. Perhaps there is a latent instinct in us all which kicks in (how do we explain it otherwise?).

I have had a persistent and unlovely cough for over 8 years. It is an anti-social thing, tiring and unpleasant for me and not very nice for anyone around me. It is the most obvious symptom of one of my chronic conditions. One day, travelling to work on a Cardiff bus, I became aware that someone somewhere on the bus was doing the telepathic stare thing in my direction. Once you become aware of it it startles you into looking up, and in this case it felt full of malice and ill-will. Sure enough, there was a youngish man glaring at me with hatred in his eyes and heart, clutching a scarf across his mouth.

I have got so used to the cough by now that I forget that in the world of normality someone coughing on public transport means one thing and one thing only: an irresponsible person with an infectious condition has deliberately set out to pass it on to everyone else and make them all ill too. Every now and then people on social media shout out (presumably in lieu of actually shouting on their train or bus, or doing the glare thing) that people with coughs should STAY AT HOME and STAY AWAY FROM WORK.

Here, just for a bit of balance, is a list of some of the reasons why people might be coughing but are not a danger to you:

allergies
asthma
bronchiectasis
COPD
cystic fibrosis
idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis
lung cancer

They might also have a legacy cough from a previous illness such as flu, pneumonia, or a collapsed lung. This list is of course not complete.

You are not going to catch any of these, worriers on social media and the hater on the bus. I understand the anxiety, of course, but the concern of others, especially when it centres however politely on suggesting I should be out of sight and hearing of the rest of society, is quite stressful, and one does wish to delay being housebound, unemployed and socially isolated for as long as possible. A chronic cough is for life.