Friday Feature: I Just Sneezed. Should I Panic?

Last week, while watching the weather forecast, I made the usual tongue-in-cheek joke about how this is the kind of weather where everyone gets sick.

This week, it's not so funny. 

I was pretty sure when I went to bed last night that this was going to be a Zoom class day. My nose was stuffy and, despite having doubled up on Vitamin C and having gotten more sleep than usual, I was pretty sure the cold was going to win. 

Sometimes, it's not so much fun to be right.

Whether or not it was the weather was immaterial, but whether or not it was a cold was more concerning, especially if I planned on venturing out into the world. Before I went to bed, I took a home COVID test to reassure myself that this was just a garden variety spring cold. 

I was happy to be right about that.

In these days of masks (or not), vaccines (or not) and ever-changing weather, it's easy to panic over a sneeze or the sniffles. Fortunately, one of my favorite sites (Mayo Clinic) has my back with its cold vs. COVID and allergy vs. COVID charts.

I don't want to be melodramatic, but I don't want to be irresponsible either. If I'm feeling under the weather, there's no reason I should share my misery, regardless of what category that misery best fits into. While this has always been the case, the pre-pandemic norm was to go to work (or somewhere else), cold or no cold. As sad as it may be that it took a pandemic to make us serious about staying home with our germs, that is, perhaps, one of the few good things to emerge from the last two years of dodging a virus whose course is unpredictable.

Both the chart and the home test agree with my analysis -- a spring cold. Still, a Zoom class seemed the kindest thing to do for myself and for my students. Although I've never been happier to hear a sneeze (cold symptom, not COVID symptom), I doubt my students would share my enthusiasm. 

And sneezing into a mask? No thanks.

Now, where did I put those soft tissues?