Move from the simplest to most complex. A cough could come as a way to dislodge an obstruction to the airway. If it continues, it might be the result of an irritant still present in the environment. An invasion at the cellular level causes coughing that functions more as a means for the intruder to reproduce and survive than any kind of protection against it.
With this in mind, it would be advisable at the first sign of persistence to stay home and not risk others. A workplace minus one functions better than one minus twice that or more, which increases the likelihood of affecting another home and another workplace. And so it goes.
This should be true of any flu. A society worth the wealth it produces for its biggest short-sellers would ensure equity for the least contributor, if even only to the common cold.
Here's where troubleshooting following the user's guide falls short and where the owner's manual's account uses its users. Even the perception of the slightest risk to one's ability to remain a survivor of the game of life is subjugated to a narrative that says you cannot stay home and remain gainfully vital, which leaves aside entirely the significant segment for whom that really does equal economic suicide.
This narrative has come to rule the world in spite of the antagonistic characteristics of its constituent authorities. It's so compelling that it's at one with the ethos of freedom, while at once gathered against its actuality. The most apocryphal gospel of prosperity is the result of its conveyance, and its concentrated efforts spin the mere suggestion of pathetic assistance for the most desperately in need into a soul destroying moral hazard while the amoral routine of its budgetary authority's generosity amounts to the cultural imperative of the greatest thing on earth.
Not even the most threatening class-action death sentence can reverse the logic of this narrative. Anyone who cannot comprehend the divergent irrationality that result from it would apparently be drifting along in relative privilege otherwise oblivious to the power cord lying detached from the socket.
