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Covid-19 vaccines may represent a spike in human ingenuity and success – but that still leaves a thorny label issue: how should you behave in a global race for the jab?
When someone skips the line and gets vaccinated, do you condemn their selfishness, admire their chutzpah, ask for advice? When a friend or family member is way ahead of you in the queue, are you happy for them or resentful? Is the desire for vaccines a legitimate existential response or is it just a symptom of Vomo – the fear of missing a vaccine?
These and other questions have come to the fore this week as stories of subterfuge, queue jumping and tension along humanity’s new fault line, the dive and the non-dive. , have emerged.
“You stole a vaccine from someone who needs it more than you do,” an Orange County, Florida sheriff deputy told two women, aged 33 and 44, who had donned hats, hats, gloves and fake glasses to try and look older and trick their way into a second dose of vaccine.
Sir Richard Leese, the head of Manchester City Council, said people were “manipulating the system” – some masquerading as social service staff – to find their way into the priority categories. “People shouldn’t go there before they are called to leave because you are taking away a place from someone who needs it most,” he said.
The ethical failure of such behavior is evident, but less clear what you do or tell someone you know has played with the system – a topic that has buzzed on social media and in advice columns. .
“My brother, who is a health care provider… had his wife vaccinated by temporarily putting her on his office payroll and claiming that she is also a health care worker. (She’s not!), ”A writer told The New York Times. “I don’t know what’s worse: playing the system or gleefully boasting about it in a text he sent after they both were vaccinated.”
The columnist’s advice was to suck things up: “You can tell your brother that you don’t respect his selfish actions. But to what end? He’s a healthcare worker! He knew the vaccine catch was wrong and did it anyway. Now you know him and your sister-in-law better.
The queue jump has sparked arguments, resignations and red faces across the world, with Austrian mayors, Spanish generals, Peruvian officials and Lebanese politicians among those in the frame.
Pete Lunn, head of behavioral research at the Institute for Economic and Social Research, an Irish think tank, said cheating or perceptions of cheating could undermine trust in the system.
“If people perceive a system to be unfair, they will often walk away even at their expense. It is important that the system is fair and seen to be fair, ”he said.
Despite some difficulties in Ireland – hospital staff vaccinated loved ones to avoid throwing out near-expired vaccines – so far so far have been fine, Lunn said. “I haven’t seen any evidence that isolated stories have a negative impact.”
The next challenge for science: a vaccine against cheaters, thieves and villains.
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