A public hygiene suggestion

I frequently ride RIPTA's buses and frequently use Rhode Island public libraries. The windows of RIPTA buses are usually closed in winter. So when a guy next to me has a very sickly coughing fit in the warm dry stale air of the bus, I naturally get a little apprehensive.

I am not a hypochondriac myself and do not want to rebuke a fellow passenger -in need of medical attention and sympathy- in a crude ill-natured way.

Presently I am at the Warwick Public Library at a computer table. The guy next to me is having a coughing fit (tuberculosis? influenza 1918? early stage of Ebola? whooping cough?). The library is thoughtful enough to have large bottles of hand sanitizer. But could not these very public places have hospital masks readily available for anyone overcome with a coughing fit? Just a polite SIGN indicating their availability ?

Am I about to SNEEZE big time myself? I am sure it is just a late fall allergy. Absolutely harmless? AHHH CHOOOO! ("jackass", "idiot", "wretch" ..... I must be hearing voices, unfriendly ones .... "They're going to take me away ha, hah, they're going to take me away, ho, ho ... to the funny farm ... ". But that song was BANNED way back - a threat to the public's mental health.

Why can't they ban TUBERCULAR SOUNDING COUGHING IN PUBLIC? Thank God for Medicare! Thank God for Obamacare!


Submitted to: letters@providencejournal.com