Almost every single child growing up in India, and possibly world over is told to cover the mouth when coughing. Coughing without covering one’s mouth is considered a “bad manner”. Even an unschooled grandma tells this to a child in the remotest of villages.
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In the times of novel coronavirus pandemic, this simple “manner” is the part of advisories by the World Health Organisation (WHO), the Union health minister in India and all the governments across the world. A death in Amerian city of Detroit reinforces why this good manner is life-saving.
A public transport driver in Detroit, United States put out a video-post on Facebook on March 21 as coronavirus infection was raging through America. He was angry that while he was doing his public duty, a woman who got into the bus, coughed without covering her face.
His Facebook post can be viewed here. The driver says, “They [health agencies and experts] are telling you every day what to do: if you cough, cough in your arm. Sneeze in some tissue.”
Visibly shaken, he says in the video, “That [coughing without covering mouth] lets me know that some folks don’t careYou all need to take this s**t seriously. There’s folks dying out here (sic).”
He also explains why he felt so upset: “I feel violated. I feel violated for the folks that were on the bus when this happened.”
Eleven days later, the driver, identified as Jason Hargrove, died of Covid-19, the disease caused by novel coronavirus, officially named as SARS-CoV-2.
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