No, you can’t hear the difference between sick and healthy coughs

Humans can’t seem to pick up on subtle variations in the sounds

man wearing a mask and coughing

A man outdoors coughs into a face mask. Humans can’t distinguish the cough of a healthy person from that of a sick person by sound alone, new research suggests.

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An aisle over in the grocery store, someone lets out a nasty cough, and you shudder.