How progressive of you to allow that.
On a serious note hope you and your your kid are fine.
This is the deal, FYI to others.
People who are in a care-giving role are stuck in the middle. It is a "judgment call" but not wanting to seem like a scaremonging drama queen, you take your kid or your mom or your dog "in" because that is what you are supposed to do. Normal people don't become shut-ins when there are less than 100 confirmed cases among millions.
Also, you typically assume (ass-u-me) that people with barking coughs, and especially with kids who have an obvious cough, (2 year olds run around, a lot) would do what they are asked to do, and stay home and not spread infectious disease.
The other thing, is that appointments usually charge when you cancel. Or you only get so many cancellations or they drop your case. So if you are "stuck" it is tempting to say "well it is still early, wait until more cases come about,and they will change their cancellation policy."
Basically word on the street has it that a school district or non-essential service needs to have a live, active and confirmed case, in order to quarantine.
So who is going to play infantry? I suppose it has to be somebody.
The other thing... my impulse is to tell these people to get the fuck outta here with their plague-ridden kid. But if the reception has made the choice of allowing these people to sit in the waiting room, I don't want to be branded as a "problem parent" starting an altercation, because that can lead to a termination of services for my kid.
My only motivation for sharing this, is to help you guys not make the same dumb choice I did.
These things happen so fast. What I SHOULD HAVE DONE is the moment I saw that coughing kid, I should not have assumed that these people would do the "right" thing. I handed them the flyer that the facility gave me, as a hint, to avoid confrontation. The moment the staff went up to the mother, questioning her about her sick kid, and they just sat down like a couple of useless potatoes ... I should have gotten up and went into a side room and self-quarantine.
Moral of the story:
Don't assume that the facility is going to make the "right" choice, ever. They also want to avoid confrontation, and not make waves with the management.
Don't assume people will do the "right" thing. The child's mother was wearing a face mask, after all, but had no qualms whatsoever about exposing a pregnant woman, a dozen special-needs kids and an occupational therapist to her ambulating Petri dish.
End of the story: I discreetly made my concern known, and in no uncertain terms. In the end they sent the people home, they sprayed Lysol air cleaner all over the place where they were sitting, and wiped down the table and chairs. They took each other's temperatures.
Kid had a dry, barking cough, like no other.
