The small vaccination queue etiquette

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Queue in front of the Aachen vaccination center

Photo: 

David Young / dpa

Samira El Ouassil

Photo: Stefan Klüter

Born in Munich in 1984, is an actress and author.

In 2016 her book “The 100 most important things” (with Timon Kaleyta and Martin Schlesinger) was published by Hatje Cantz Verlag.

In 2009 she was the candidate for chancellor of the »party«, which at the time was not allowed to vote in the federal elections.

She was recently awarded the Bert Donnepp ​​Prize for media journalism for her media critical column »Wochenschau« (uebermedien.de).

I will be vaccinated tomorrow!

Be honest: what is your first reaction to this statement?

Unfortunately, that's not true for me yet, but luckily this message has recently been reading more and more on social networks.

Irritatingly, however, such good news is not infrequently followed by three reactions that are less pleasant: first, the puzzled questioning;

second, the investigative re-drilling, as it can already be;

and thirdly - sometimes more, sometimes less factually - outraged criticism.

People who are not over 70 years old or who do not present themselves with a profile picture that shows them exhausted with an oxygen mask in the hospital are suddenly asked the most annoying questions about any previous illnesses;

they are interrogated about the extent to which they have contact with a pregnant woman;

it is determined what level of care the parents have;

or you want to know who they bribed to enjoy the privilege of early vaccination.

The silliest thing about all this questioning - because it conceals a certain vaccine envy so uncomfortably poorly - are remote diagnoses à la "You don't look that endangered!"

As if you could read people's chronic diseases from their foreheads.

What is causing some commentators to forget their social skills at the moment and to demand a justification for a vaccination appointment from complete strangers in the digital space?

Where does this openly exposed vaccination pertinence come from?

Vaccination sequences are nothing more than a large queue spread across the entire republic.

And this in turn is an embodiment of procedural, bureaucratic equality.

Perhaps, then, this current indignation about vaccinating others can be explained by the psychology of the queue according to Richard Larson.

The professor of technical systems at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology is such a renowned queuing expert that he even “Dr.

Queue "is called.

In 2009 he explained the presenter Neal Conan of the radio station NPR laconically and plausibly: “Queuing anger can arise especially when it is a violation of the 'first come, first served' principle or what people believe in Keep fairness. "

Fairness is the key word here.

In a life-threatening crisis situation, the majority perceive it as natural and, fortunately, as fair that vulnerable groups should be given precedence.

In such a collective existential challenge that requires everyone to wait their turn, the illusion of an orderly queue provides us with a sense of community that makes the necessary patience easy to bear.

At the same time, however, this arrangement also allows us to assume that there are rule violations everywhere.

"The mere fact that unfairness is made possible in principle evidently arouses in us the feeling that we are actually being treated unfairly," quote the authors Jochen Metzger and Søren Harms in "Brandeins", the Israeli management researcher Anat Rafaeli.

In her study, she proves that we cannot rid ourselves of the feeling of thinking that the neighboring queue is faster in queuing situations, i.e. that we always think ourselves in the wrong queue - even if everything was fair.

Our cultural values ​​of equality and a love of order are linked to respect for the ethical principle of protecting the weakest, which is followed by the idea of ​​the sequence of vaccinations, but woe betide anyone who is supposed to push ahead!

Woe to someone who is allegedly violating the invisible etiquette of the queue!

Whoever breaks the social contract of those waiting has to explain himself, he will be socially sanctioned or at least verbally punished with shame in order to restore order to the snake.

Sometimes certain manners, interpersonal decency and discretion are undermined.

Therefore, allow me to extrapolate a little vaccination queue etiquette from the observation of the current common waiting:

If you learn that someone has a vaccination appointment that you don't immediately suspect is in one of the prioritized groups:

Don't ask suspiciously, like a nun who tries to catch children smoking, how the person got the appointment.

Do not ask why the person is vaccinated in front of their cousin's uncle.

Also, don't ask the person if they feel like they are taking the vaccine away.

Do not force people to have to spread their health or family situation in front of you or others.

In particular, do not shame the elderly if they are afraid of being vaccinated with AstraZeneca and do not want to be vaccinated with it.

Respect the decision if someone does not want to be vaccinated (yet), even if there are of course a lot of good reasons to criticize it (but you will certainly not convince the person with accusations).

Channel your legitimate anger that it is your turn or your loved ones and relatives not your turn to someone who really does nothing for the entire slow, frustrating organization.

The only adequate response to the message "I'll be vaccinated tomorrow!" Is actually just: "Great!"