Cold, Coughing, and the Occlusion Effect

Despite all my efforts to not get a cold, feels like I'm getting one. My throat is sore and itchy, my noise is a bit blocked. I know that cold can exacerbate or lessen tinnitus either temporally or permanently, I try not to worry about it much at the moment and hope it's not the flu or something more serious.

I would like to ask, and sorry if it's such a stupid question, but I don't really understand whether occlusion effect is just a phenomenon or is it actually dangerous to tinnitus sufferers? I will need to plug up my ears in the coming days, and if I cannot avoid coughing and blowing my noise, can the sounds be dangerous?