The idiot I live with will not take precautions to avoid spreading coronavirus

I've posted before that my horrible sister is dangerously reckless and refuses to consider the possibility that she has ADHD. Since the pandemic started, I've been really worried about getting the infection because I have asthma and she keeps coughing on me and on items in the kitchen.

Yesterday, in one of her typically dangerous behaviors, she gave herself a massive burn on her butt and spent seveal hours at a hospital. I told her she has to self isolate after being in the hospital and that she has to wear a mask in the kitchen and shared areas of the house, but she refuses.

I have a lot of breathing problems and I don't think I would survive getting the virus. Does anyone know how to force this horrible person to wear a mask when outside her room for 2 weeks after going to a high risk area?

She denies there is risk of bringing home the infection from a hospital, but her own poor judgement has already led to a scorched bottom from doing something no normal person would have done. She can't learn that she is always mistaken when she refuses to admit that her behavior is risky. She just thinks she is a victim if people criticize her or expect her to behave decently.

I'm so frustrated about this. Nothing would offend me more than dying from someone else's stupidity.

I'm sorry you are dealing with this most difficult situation. I wish I had some useful suggestions to offer you. I guess the only things that occur to me are to wear a mask around home yourself if you can, wash your hands frequently or use a hand sanitizer, & keep a spray bottle of disinfectant & some paper towels with you whenever you're anywhere your sister has been. (You probably didn't need me to offer up those suggestions.) I don't know how old your sister is. Assuming she's at least a bit older, perhaps this would be an appropriate time to involve Social Services? After all, this really is a potentially life and death situation. Please take care...

Thank you for your sympathy. I am always afraid I will come off as cold because I shifted a few years ago from worrying about my sister endangering herself to focusing on not getting killed by her. Our parents allowed her to get away with anything so as an adult, she can even shove me against a wall and not consider what she did as a real action. Today she yelled at me and called me selfish for getting angry that she opened my bedroom door and talked to me without a mask.

Because I demanded that she wear a mask, she threatened to not look after my senior dog if anything ever happened to me, even though I looked after her sickly dog all night when she was at the hospital because he has a complicated medication and diet schedule. I even lent her my underwear and clothes and washed her laundry which was covered with so much old urine that it was brown and smelled horrible.

I have tried to get help forcing her to get assessed for mental illness but family will not support me in this and it is mostly my word against hers. Though her emergency room visit is the first thing on record for her behavior and I will use it if it come to a legal battle. I have considered reporting her for assault before but I'm afraid the police will get mad at me for wasting their time since I have managed to avoid serious injuries from my sister's behavior so far. Though I thought I was going to die when she tried to shove me down a flight of stairs during college and she dragged me underwater with a surfboard leash in high school. The family behave as if I am the crazy one so I am alone in this.

I am stuck in a bad situation with nowhere to go. So I made myself 2 bottles of disinfectant, one bottle for food contact and one for everything else and I regularly spray down areas where she goes. I also spray the kitchen and bathroom before touching anything. But I can still get infected if she opens my bedroom door and talks or shouts at me or yells near food and drink I am preparing.

In the places she has been to, the number of positive cases has more than doubled in the past week. When she hears news about people getting sick from asymptomatic tranmission, she mocks other people for being stupid. Then she refuses to take precautions herself because she thinks people she met didn't appear sick and she doesn't have symptoms yet. I think if this keeps up, she will definitely get the virus.

I have been working on a career change so I can get out of this situation and encountering a lot of obstacles mostly due to my health problems. So my goal is to try to solve this issues so that I have a way out as soon as the shutdown ends.

Hello There, Could I ask why you both are still living at the same address, and how old are you,,

If you are working would't it make sense if you left as you can afford too, and do you really secretly hate your Sister! that's you'r actual problem.

She persuaded me to go into business with her a long time ago and controls all the money and ruined my credit so I can't leave. I live in a rural area and have been looking for a new job for years. The shutdown doesn't make it easier to find a new job either. I can't even afford my own car and I have dependants.

I can sympathise with your situation as I have mine right now?

One saying holds true, Accept, Adapt and Overcome.

I think the same in my entrappment that if i can prove the reality of that I can leave, like me you have to Overcome.

I guess all you can do is protect yourself and wear a mask around her.

If that's what your intellect says then so be it.

Or employe a COVID TEAM.

maybe you can do what I do with my family when someone is sick. only do the reverse...

when I have a sick child I designate one plate, spoon, fork, table knife, drinking cup as theirs. I label them using sharpie permanent ink. or I "theme" their placements one has belle another has star wars, another has harry potter and the last one has frozen place settings. I keep each place setting separated. even their tooth brushes are separated, my children have their own towel, washcloth and hand towel set, their own sheet set and blanket set....

the point is everyone has their own things they like and use even my wife and I have different preferences for personal items.

maybe you can take the things that are yours and enclose them in zip lock baggies and take them into your room. that way they are not where your sister can cough on them and they are protected. when you use them you wash and dry them and immediately bag them up and take them to your room again.

when needing to be in shared spaces theres nothing preventing you from protecting yourself, wear your mask, wear clothing that is easily washed or disposable, wash your own hands frequently. washing surfaces your self before you touch them, that you yourself come in contact with, hold yourself to social distancing of 6 ft this way she can not cough or sneeze on you.

you see we cant control what others do but we can control what we do, is something I tell my children for years. if you have children you know that age old battle of "mom he's touching me, Mom hes breathing on me..." I have been dealing with this kind of thing even before covid, my oldest is a teen now.

rather than expecting your sister to do what you want her to do because you already know shes not going to, take the reverse approach, expect yourself to do those things, instead of trying to fight the losing battle of getting your sister to do those things.

another suggestion maybe theres some place you can go to have a "health break" from your sister. its summer plan yourself a vacation where you can pack up some things and go camping or what ever by yourself. last week I packed up a few things and went to a favorite isolated spot where it was just me, my tent, air mattress, and my own cooking and so forth. next week my wife will be doing the same thing going on a solo vacation to her favorite isolated spot. when my children complain about each other my wife and I set up a "vacation spot" in their bedrooms or the back yard and pack a gooodie bag that will last a few days and they enjoy their solo vacation. pick a spot in the house that is only yours (your bedroom, your bathroom or other spot you know you wont be bothered) and have a great solo quarentined vacation from your sister.