Sufferers from hay fever and asthma are being shunned and stared down when they sneeze.
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One in Canberra has even been pressured into taking a coronavirus test because colleagues at work weren't convinced they were safe.
As the peak hay fever season approaches in Australia's "allergy central", sufferers have been urged to get medication early so they don't get mistaken for infectious bearers of COVID-19.
"You have a sniffle and a cough and everyone looks at you," asthma and hay fever sufferer Cheree Lewis said.
"I had an asthma attack at work and I had to take a COVID test."
She said she totally understood the reaction of her colleagues.
"They don't know," she said.
Her severe form of what's called brittle asthma means she is often sneezing, coughing and wheezing so she is dreading the abundance of pollen which starts about now but gets into full swing from the end of the month.
I had an asthma attack at work and I had to take a covid test.
- Cheree Lewis
She is not alone in feeling the anxious stares of people around her in this time of plague.
Asthma Australia said a sufferer who sneezed was stared down by passers-by outside a school when other parents assumed a sneeze meant the virus.
The asthmatic had to get out her treatment equipment to show other people that she was genuinely asthmatic.
The organisation is urging the public to show some understanding and urging sufferers to get their medication early. Apart from anything, that means that if coughs do develop, they know it might not be asthma or hay fever.
"In a pandemic, if you can prevent sneezing, a runny nose, rubbing your eyes and getting shortness of breath, you should, it will be better for you and those around you," Asthma Australia chief executive Michele Goldman said.
Cheree Lewis said she feared a shortage of medicines. When the coronavirus first hit, supplies of Ventolin ran out in her local pharmacy, apparently because some people thought it might offer protection from the virus.
It doesn't. Nor is asthma or hay fever infectious at all. It is often genetic and triggered by allergens like pollen or animal hair.
Canberra has one of the highest rates of asthma in Australia, according to Canberra Pollen which monitors the levels of pollen in the air.
Firstly, it's landlocked so no sea-breezes disperse the particles which trigger asthma and other breathing difficulties.
And, secondly, its climate supports a wide variety of plants so if one type doesn't trigger hay-fever another type might.
According to Canberra Pollen, "in the ACT, the season for allergy-related pollen can begin as early as August (dominated mostly by Pine, Birch and Cypress), peaking in October to November (dominated by the grasses) and extending into January and February (including warm climate grasses and Plantain)."
Steve Evans
Steve Evans is a reporter on The Canberra Times. He's been a BBC correspondent in New York, London, Berlin and Seoul and the sole reporter/photographer/paper deliverer on The Glen Innes Examiner in country New South Wales. "All the jobs have been fascinating - and so it continues."
Steve Evans is a reporter on The Canberra Times. He's been a BBC correspondent in New York, London, Berlin and Seoul and the sole reporter/photographer/paper deliverer on The Glen Innes Examiner in country New South Wales. "All the jobs have been fascinating - and so it continues."
