せきに視線、「花粉症です」　缶バッジ人気―新型肺炎

　新型コロナウイルスの感染拡大が続く中、電車内でせき込み、「周囲の目が気になる」という人が増えている。そんな肩身の狭い思いをしている人の間で、ぜんそくや花粉症であることを知らせる缶バッジが人気だ。
　川崎市の雑貨店「エピリリ」の店頭には、かわいらしいイラストとともに「花粉症です」「ぜんそくマーク」「このセキうつりません」などと書かれた手作りの缶バッジやキーホルダーが並ぶ。店主の牧野美和さん自身もぜんそく持ちで、発作が出て激しくせき込んだ経験がある。「マスクをしていても周囲の目が気になる。申し訳なく思ってしまう」という。

　福岡市の地下鉄車内でせきをする人を見た乗客が非常ボタンを押し、ダイヤが乱れるトラブルがあった２月下旬以降、注文が急増。１日３０～４０個が売れる人気商品だ。
　家族や友人の協力を得ても生産が間に合わず、「待ち切れず店に足を運んでくれた人にはその場で作り、手渡ししている」という。購入者には、周りに見えやすいようバッグなどに付けることを勧めている。（2020/03/10-18:09）

Badges indicating that the holders have asthma or hay fever are proving popular in Japan as more and more such people feel uncomfortable when coughing on a train or in other places amid the spread of the novel coronavirus.
   Handmade badges and key rings with messages such as "I have hay fever," "I have asthma" and "This cough isn't contagious," along with cute illustrations of animals, are on the shelves of variety store Epilyri in the city of Kawasaki, Kanagawa Prefecture, near Tokyo.
   "Even when I'm wearing a face mask, I'm worried about what other people are thinking and I feel sorry," said Miwa Makino, owner of the store. Makino herself has asthma and knows what it is like to be unable to stop coughing.
   The store has been flooded with orders since an incident in late February in which a person aboard a subway train in the southwestern Japan city of Fukuoka pressed an emergency button after seeing another passenger coughing. At the store, 30 to 40 such badges and key rings are sold a day.
   Makino has asked her family and friends to help her make the products, but it is difficult to meet the surging demand, according to her. "For impatient customers who come to my shop, I make one for them immediately," she said.