Americans Experiencing Sneeze Shaming

To start this post, I am a retail worker. There have been a few moments that I've choked on nothing more than air and felt shameful to try and clear my throat afterward. There have even been moments I've had to sneeze and feel ashamed too.

This sneeze shaming comes from a new American poll, where 56% of the participants showed that they were ashamed to sneeze or cough in fear of being shamed. This survey was conducted by Flonase.

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This is a non-scientific survey of course, as this is more of a personal opinion-based survey. According to this survey, 55% of the participants had gotten the side-eye due to the COVID-19 pandemic with sneezing and or coughing, which now causes a panic moment when they feel a sneeze or cough coming on.

A few of the thoughts that people had in the survey said a few of the following thoughts:

• 37% of participants said they had thought, "Great, now people think I'm sick."
• Another 29% of participants said they had either thought or said, "I promise I'm not sick."
• 27% of those in the survey had thought, "Hold it in."
• 24% of the surveyors said they thought, "I hope I don't have snot in my mask."
• The last 24% had said the thought or said "It's just allergies, I swear."

The survey also noted that when someone sneezes in public, 6 in 10 people would immediately say "Bless you," but only after 3 sneezes. Other thoughts noted while people sneezed were, "I hope they're not sick," or "I hope it's just allergies."

In the survey, nearly 46% noted that they were dreading the upcoming allergy season due to the added stress of the pandemic. Frankly, I know I am guilty of the side-eye. If you are coughing and sneezing more than the guy next to ya, I'm going to ask you to take a step back.