UKH

Cold (sneezes & runny nose). Got tickets for a concert tomorrow night.

I work from home, don't use public transport and have not been out of the country for, er, years. More chance of being hit by lightening than having C-19. Not been to any of the spots where C-19 is known to be present in the UK. 

However I think I may be persona non-grata if I did go and sneezed, blew my nose etc. and would I be too aware of dagger eyes from all around me to even enjoy the concert??

Anyone else facing similar dilemma?

Depends, who's playing?

King Creosote at the Royal Concert Hall in Glasgow

If you do go, say loudly and often how crowded everything feels since coming back from Wuhan.

*please don’t go

In that case, go but stay at the back and sneeze and cough quietly to yourself in the corner whilst enjoying the gig. 

Cheers,
Jamie

Go , but wear a face mask.

Well, it has sold out and its a seating only gig (proper 'posh' veneu) so no option to be discrete at the back

Coronavirus is bad enough on its own without having another cold/flu bug at the same time.  So probably better to be more cautious than usual about spreading a cold about.

I didn't think sneezes and runny nose were part of covid-19? Take cold and flu tablets to halt the symptoms and just go. If you aren't sneezing then good hand hygiene should stop you spreading any cold about the place.

You have the cold, as said above Covid-19 supposedly doesn't normally cause a runny nose.

https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/coronavirus-covid-19/#symptoms

You should go, but in this outfit - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plague_doctor#/media/File:Medico_peste.jpg

If you're a proper red-eyed snot fountain that's different, but given that you've done a perfectly adequate risk-assessment and determined it's vanishingly unlikely to be anything more serious than the common cold - a mild sniffle would not keep me away from that.  (For the same reason I won't be putting myself under indefinite house-arrest when the hayfever season kicks in.)

Dose up on a decongestant, if you usually find that helps at all.  Take plenty of tissues (make sure every sneeze is caught in one) and maybe some hand sanitizer if the panic-buying numpties have left any available for you.  As it's a proper 'posh' venue it should be feasible (and reasonably un-disgusting) to nip to the bog and wash your hands before you go to the bar.  Dunno about you but I tend to find cold symptoms often disappear for a bit when I'm really engrossed in something anyway.

They're not. Covid presents with a dry cough (amongst other things).

An urgent need for packs of toilet roll? 

I've been a snot /phlegm fountain since end of November and had a cough.  Does that mean I should stay in three months later?

the chap I met in a gully just back from Italy was a bigger threat than I am.

plus the point is, going somewhere like that you have to assess the risk of everyone else going and then anyone infected there going about spreading it.   Not saying shouldn't go (we have tickets for the Oyster Band next month) but it simply isn't simple.

I'm going to that. Hadn't even occurred to me not to go to be honest.

There's nothing OTC (at least in my local Morrisons) that appears to treat a runny nose as opposed to a congested one!

Sneezing, runny nose, it’s likely you will pass on an illness in an enclosed space.

what is the decent thing to do?

My husband never understands this either, a runny nose is considered congestion! A decongestant basically stops your body making the snot. Any of the OTC cold and flu medications will clear up the symptoms. I personally prefer to take the separate decongestants and paracetamol as the combined ones tend to have caffeine in them. As a non tea or coffee drinker, my body doesn't know what to do with caffeine so even taking them early in the day keeps me awake at night.

Take cold and flu tablets so that you are not sneezing or nose running!

I felt myself coming down with something in work two days ago : big swollen glands in my neck, runny nose and that taste you get when you know you have something so I phoned nhs 24, just in case and they said no it's not cv you are fine to carry on. But after sneezing all the time yesterday late on in work and some colleagues naturally wary, as the government guidelines do state to stay away from people who are unwell, I've decided to take tomorrow off.

Edit - King Creosote? I loved his/BBC made video and music From Scotland With Love, it's excellent and I seen him perform it at Glasgow Green during the Commonwealth games. 

Not specifically, but I do get (very mild versions of) 2 of the 3 COVID19 symptoms (coughing and breathing difficulties) from asthma all the time, and I am *just waiting* for someone to tell me I should naff off home and self isolate.

If you have a runny nose you have a cold, it is not a symptom of COVID19, so the decision should be based on what it normally would be if you had a cold without COVID19 going around, at least in my book.

I saw him about 2 years ago, a great gig, touching & heart felt music.

I only know the excellent From Scotland with Love BBC dvd of his which fits your description of his music very well as ' heartfelt and touching', but I feel it also captures a certain universal longing we have, in this instance of course focused on Scotland with a very distinctive Scottish sound but it could be about anywhere you were raised and your love for that dear place.

I even bought this as a gift for relatives I have in Europe as it has such melancholic longing and love for this beautiful land, its old times, tradition, history and people. And how much we miss it when we are far away. 

Excellent stuff, I saw him at the Usher Hall last Saturday ! They played along a showing of From Scotland with love, which was fantastic. You’re in for a treat assuming you can go !

Venue was full up but I was sat next to a guy who was coughing and sneezing incessantly and was popping paracetamols like peanuts fur the whole time... Not exactly reassuring !

Of course I’d rather die of coronavirus than facing the embarrassment of saying something to the guy so just faked to ignore it...

His Quay Sessions performance is still available on iPlayer:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/p083bhyy

Yes, it was just explained to me today that those symptoms of throat and nose, coughing and spluttering etc, are NOT those of covid-19. It's a lower throat infection, and manifests itself with having a high fever and having trouble breathing.

Saw him a bit after Astronaut meets appleman came out, awesome gig.

Well, if you have just listened to the special News conference from No 10 given by the PM, Chief Medical Officer and Chief Scientific Officer the answer is "no" if you have a) a persistent cough or b) a high temperature, the correct procedure is to self isolate for 7 days.

They say that the true number of infected people in the country is now more like 5,000 to 10,000, it's inevitable that pretty well everyone will get it, and it's going to last for many months.

Given this, the important thing is to try and delay this inevitable spread so that the NHS does not become so overwhelmed by a spike in cases that it can't cope which will result in a much larger mortality rate than if the disease is spread more evenly over a long period of time, during which the NHS can cope with severe cases without becoming overwhelmed

In particular we have to start considering other people ahead of ourselves, particularly the vulnerable. ie the elderly and those with underlying health problems. This is the reasoning behind the decision not to close schools, because if they do it is the grandparents who will step in to provide child care and these are the very people most at risk

Your general info is good, but the OP did say right from that start that he has sneezes and a runny nose, not a persistent cough nor a fever - neither a) nor b).

Gigs are beginning to be pulled, I wouldn't be at all surprised if they all go before very long but not quite yet.

The Who have just announced that they'll not be starting their tour in Manchester Arena on Monday, the three other gigs happening there over the weekend are still on, at least at the mo. 

It's not hard to see how the risk assessment for The Who may be a bit different to the other acts playing the arena over the next few days.  They don't just need to think about other people who may be vulnerable - they (and many of their fans) are quite elderly and have underlying health problems themselves.

I hope the OP is feeling well enough, and is un-snotty enough to get to the gig this evening and enjoy it.  It could be his last for a while.

Given the age of the Who, and their likely attendees, I reckon they will fall firmly into the 'at risk' category...

Quite so.  It's also probably a wee bit cheaper & easier to pull the tour now, before it's actually on the road, than inevitably having to do so soon anyway.  (Even though transport, crew, hotels etc., will already have been organised and equipment prepped.  I've no idea if they've been rehearsing already.)  Manchester Arena was to have been their opening night on Monday.

On the subject of gigs in Scotland it looks like all the bigger ones may have just gone bump for the foreseeable, along with many other events - probably won't be long before we follow suit South of the border:
https://www.gov.scot/news/first-minister-announces-large-events-to-be-cance...

Interestingly the organisers of the Northern Kin and Stone Valley festivals are going ahead (at this stage at least, but they have warned the situation is fluid), and will be massively uprating washing / showering / toilet facilities on the site.

Good thing too, there's no way they'd manage to do that at the same time as co-ordinating the global response to a fast-developing pandemic.

Should you stay or should you go?

I think: don't go.

If you stay it could be double.

Are you muddling all the lyrics? The logical course of action in the song is that he should go, thus halving the potential trouble. But that was a different sort of scenario of course 

I intended to convey the counter argument.

Tablets and flu medicine etc might help you as an individual but if there is any risk of spreading a cold in a densely populated concert you shouldn’t go.
We all need to step up here and it may well involve some personal compromise. Just because a cold has different symptoms to Coronavirus, lots more people sneezing will certainly help it spread if you pass your cold to someone who does have it.

I think you screwed it up one way or another.  Tragic waste of potential 

Did you go?

And if so, what were the relative amounts of trouble that there were?

Yes, I felt a lot better yesterday (and today) and didn't sneeze (or cough, even though I wasn't anyway).

In fact I didn't hear a single cough throughout the concert. Given my lack of relevant symptoms I was, in the end, more concerned with catching it, so washed hands etc. and kept my distance on the train, avoiding touching the buttons etc.

Now pre-occupied with whether to use climbing centres...!

Was the concert any good? Worth the fretting?

Yeah, it was great. Have you listened to his stuff? A unique voice.

I've tried and it is simply "not for me", as far as I could tell. Not criticising him at all, just not my thing. I remember when he was a new name (was Pictish Trail earlier?) and there was a lot of new British folk music (for the sake of a convenient pigeonhole) and just none of it really did it for me. Glad you liked it. 

Funnily enough I have a twee-folk tiny concert to go to tomorrow, Alessi's Ark, who in theory I should hate, with her seemingly affected almost-little-girl vocal etc, but I idolise her  

Let's see if that concert happens though. 

Different folk for different folks eh? (..sorry!)

Affected little girl voice - sounds like a John Lewis or M&S Christmas advert - not my thing!

I've tickets for Pigs x 7 on 25 April...I wonder if that will go ahead

Pigs might fly  

In fairness to Alessi, she did record her first album when she was 15 or 16, and her vocal is not “affected”, just genuinely a bit quirky (and no longer sounding “little girl”)

Cancelled, and understandably. Probably max 80 but regardless, things have changed a lot today already 

Where was it due to take place?

Seeing Pigs x 7 in brum, was really looking forward to it. Looks unlikely now.