Want pandemic to end? Get in line

What are you willing to wait in line for? Everyone is taught to line up for school assemblies, but we keep drifting back into them long after graduation day.

A Anyone anxious to snag hot tickets to concerts (remember them?) knows all too well the anxiety that builds until the virtual box office opens, followed by a “Your wait is 5 ... 10 ... 15 ... minutes” message. While tailgating in stadium parking lots, previous generations share shaggy dog tales of wrist bracelets and sleeping on sidewalks to buy tickets.

A The people who sit in in the rear wind up first in line to greet a newly married couple after a wedding.

A Apartment dwellers know the tormented wait to snag a washing machine.

A There’s the line to get NFL seats ...

A Followed by the halftime queue to the bathroom.

A For the hungry, no line is too long to wait for food.

A There are those who seem to like the experience of the wait so much that they’ll do it just to get a cronut.

A And those who would do anything not to face another line at the Department of Motor Vehicles.

A The most resolute citizens are willing to wait for their voice to be heard at public hearings.

A And, of course, we patiently wait at funeral homes to pay last respects to the dead.

These waits are all, more or less, optional. The line to get a coronavirus vaccine represents the rare instance of a line everyone has an interest in, even those who are resisting getting the shots.

The line created by Gov. Ned Lamont has the advantage of being a straight one. While we championed giving consideration to residents, for example, with comorbidities, there is logic to the reasoning that any line moves more quickly that is not serpentine.

For some people, this has posed something of a moral quandary. Those who are in good health have expressed trepidation at getting access to vaccines before the more vulnerable.

The last group in the state’s rollout plan — ages 16-34 — won’t be eligible until May 3, which still seems so far away. But some people in that group are already suggesting they want to make sure they aren’t cutting in front of more vulnerable neighbors.

It’s an admirable impulse, but we’ll reach the end of the line faster if there isn’t quibbling in the middle (there are a few exceptions; cases in which doctors might advise against it).

“It’s really your civic duty so we can get herd immunity,” said Karen Jubanyik, Yale Medicine Emergency Medicine physician and co-author of “Beat the Coronavirus: Strategies for Staying Safe and Coping With the New Normal During the COVID-19.”

Young people may feel safe, but they need to embrace the reality that they can still transmit the disease. And if a vaccine is formulated for even younger residents, they need to set a good example.

We wait in line for so many things. Everyone should be willing to do it to save lives.