How ‘sick shaming’ cold symptoms leads to further germ spread

Medicine

By Brooke Steinberg

In this post-pandemic world, many have become hyperaware of illness around them — giving rise to stigma at even the slightest sign of a cold.

Now, a simple cough, sniffle or sneeze can reduce someone to social outcast status — aka “sick shaming” — as those around them fear a fresh case of COVID-19.

To avoid the embarrassment, symptomatic people are using more allergy and cold medicines than ever, which could spread germs even further by powering through illness instead of resting it off in isolation, Bloomberg reported.

Compared to 2019 — before the pandemic — sales of over-the-counter medications for upper respiratory infections have spiked 23% this year, rising to $11.8 billion, according to consumer intelligence company NIQ.

Specifically, cold and flu medications, which make up about a quarter of the category, increased at a faster rate with a 30% gain.

Kenvue Inc., formerly the Consumer Healthcare division of Johnson & Johnson, reportedly saw 40% of their revenue from over-the-counter treatments such as Zyrtec, Benadryl and Sudafed.

Some brands even have ads that encourage consumers to stock up on OTC meds so they can take them at the onset of symptoms and carry on with their everyday lives, even when some drugs — namely, Sudafed — have been proven ineffective against a cold.

Simon Williams, a psychology researcher at Swansea University in Wales, found in his studies on the pandemic’s impact on social behaviors that there’s an increased sense of being judged for coughing or sneezing — even if it’s nothing contagious.

For example, Courtney Berentsen, a product manager in the San Francisco Bay Area, has asthma that leads to a non-contagious chronic cough. Her co-workers, while well-meaning, encourage her to work from home as to not get people sick.

“It feels like I’m setting a bad precedent by coming to work sick, but it will be like a month before I come back if I have to wait until I have no cough,” Berentsen told Bloomberg.

The impact of Covid may encoruage people to avoid social situations in fear of being judged, it hasn’t stopped anyone from working.

A 2022-2023 report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that fewer workers took off from work this fall due to illness than in the previous two years.

With a majority of people working from home during the pandemic, it’s become more normalized to continue working while sick in the isolation of your home.

But working through a full day while sick can take a toll on a person and could lead to taking more medication than needed — continuing the vicious cycle.

Moreover, taking too much of a medication that isn’t necessary can potentially harm a person’s health and increase the risk of side effects.

“These cough and cold symptoms — because there’s so much overlap with symptoms of Covid – there’s this kind of fear,” Jennifer Bourgeois, a clinical pharmacist at SingleCare, an online pharmacy platform, told Bloomberg, adding that it leads to a “knee-jerk” reaction to use medications, which ups the risk of side effects.

In Berentsen’s case, she takes Mucinex to hold back her asthma symptoms — using a medication that isn’t necessary for her chronic disease.

“I don’t know what would happen if I didn’t take it,” she said, referring to her job’s return-to-work policy.