How to set producer/publisher socket timeout for RabbitMQ (pika)? - rabbitmq

Question

Is there a way to make set the socket timeout when publishing?
I'm testing correct recovery from lost connection with Pika, by
establishing a BlockingConnection connection
disconnecting from the network to force an error
reestablishing a connection and checking that the producer reconnects correctly and continues producing.
However, I don't seem to be able to set the socket timeout and basic_publish hangs - for WAY more than 5 seconds -- 60 or more.
credentials = pika.PlainCredentials(worker_config.username, worker_config.password)
connection = pika.BlockingConnection(pika.ConnectionParameters(
host=worker_config.host,
credentials=credentials,
port=worker_config.port,
connection_attempts=1,
retry_delay=5,
socket_timeout=5,
))
# No effect
#connection._impl.socket.settimeout(5)
channel = connection.channel()
while True:
result = channel.basic_publish(
exchange=EXCHANGE,
routing_key=ROUTING_KEY,
body=message,
properties=pika.BasicProperties(
delivery_mode, # MQ_TRANSIENT_DELIVERY_MODE, #1
))
# Someone after some success, disconnect network.
Pika comes into (select_connection.py):
def poll(self, write_only=False):
"""Poll until the next timeout waiting for an event
:param bool write_only: Only process write events
"""
while True:
try:
events = self._poll.poll(self.get_next_deadline())
break
except _SELECT_ERROR as error:
if _get_select_errno(error) == errno.EINTR:
continue
else:
raise
... and indeed, get_next_deadline is sending 5.
_poll is a python Poll object which takes a timeout in seconds.
What's up with this?
There's a similar question, but has no answers (not enough detail?)