On Not Understanding People

The other day, I went for my booster shot for the Coronavirus vaccine. I had timed the trip to coincide with a doctor’s appointment, to avoid needing to go to the doctors twice. However, as soon as I got there, I realized I may have made a mistake. There was a massive queue to get into the outpatients area. A mixture of people with appointments, people getting their third doses in the walk-in vaccination area. Some, like myself, had non-Covid reasons to be waiting to go inside.

What made everything worse though was people trying to get in, not queuing properly. One poor woman was at the door, checking IDs an body temperatures, trying to explain to people that they need a safe pass to go in, and that the testing area was around the corner. Considering how many assholes were there, it was no wonder why she was struggling. The weird thing though is that some older guy, who had been denied entry due to not having a valid safe pass, just started shouting at everyone, arguing that we needed to be more spaced out (which is fair), and repeatedly threatening to call the police.

The situation was rather surreal, and it did make me a bit late for my appointment with a psychologist. And it made me realize that, well, people are weird.

Signposts and Paper

A lot of people had no idea where they were going. There were A4 paper signs hastily printed out everywhere, but no one was really paying attention. Signs just aren’t as obvious as asking the overworked nurse where the kids’ vaccination area is. But what I found more interesting was how people were complaining about all the safety measures, as well as needing a vaccine in general.

Literally insanity

I swear, I just don’t understand people. We were all stuck indoors for ages when Coronavirus first struck. We were in lockdown and everyone hated it in some way or another. But now that we have something that is effective, a vaccine, we can finally start going outside again. Getting the vaccine means less intrusive testing was required, and things were slowly turning around. The vaccines also meant no more lockdowns (hopefully).

Thing is, I do get one thing: all this vaccination organization stuff is annoying and tedious. At least where I am, it takes time to get your vaccines, get everything arranged. Especially when you have to work or have kids or whatever. The organization required is insane and eats into your free time. But surely a bit of awkwardness and arranging an appointment or whatever is better than catching the Coronavirus?

The reactions we’ve seen though have been completely insane. People are arguing about kids needing to be tested and vaccinated, there’s the normal screaming of vaccines causing autism and all sorts of things.

The sad thing is how hard it is to change minds.

Changing someone’s mind is a long, winding and slow thing to do. With most people, it is incredibly slow. With others, changing their minds is impossible. People love their own beliefs and hate the idea that they might be wrong. I mean, even I have some beliefs that probably crash with reality, that I am completely wrong about. It is very difficult to accept that you are wrong.

At some point though, wrong beliefs become dangerous, especially if they are unchallenged. Information and misinformation constantly come into conflict with each other, and the average person can get so lost that they will get things wrong.

But in all honesty? Some people are just idiots, who ruin things for everyone else. And thanks to these folk, we’ll probably never see an end to this pandemic…