An unvaccinated acquaintance is believed to be infected with the corona virus while traveling by train, and at Sunday brunch in the open air, she infects a friend who has been vaccinated twice, who in turn passes the virus on to a neighbor who has also been vaccinated.

There is no need for a 2G party like in Münster, that superspreader event with body contact that recently infected numerous celebrants without developing severe symptoms.

But what lesson should one learn from this with a view to autumn, which prominent and less prominent virologists warn about? That you avoid any "unnecessary" get-togethers with other people? That you avoid fully occupied restaurants because an infected person could cough at the next table? If you are afraid of standing in a cloud of viruses, even if you have been vaccinated twice, shouldn't you board a train, S-Bahn or plane? Cancel parties? If one did this in the naive hope that at some point (maybe in a few years?) The corona virus would disappear again, one would not only voluntarily forego unexpected, possibly inspiring encounters and live for more months in the beware mode , one would also succumb to the so-called illusion of control.

More than forty years ago, Ellen Langer, Harvard Professor of Psychology, described the phenomenon that people tend to believe that they can control something that is objectively uncontrollable. The best-known example comes from road traffic: if, as an exemplary pedestrian, you wait at a red traffic light and press the traffic light button, you think that the traffic light changes to green more quickly, although many of these buttons have long since ceased to work. Studies show that pedestrians are less likely to cross a street when it is red if they can press a button.

If you are hoping for a one in a game of dice, you let the dice slide gently out of your hand, while if you need a six it cannot be lively enough. In any case, it is quite possible that many unvaccinated people, because they were neither infected with the wild type of Sars-CoV-2 nor with the beta variant, believe that by constantly wearing a mask, disinfecting hands and keeping their distance, the Delta variant can also easily keep the delta variant at bay can. Germany’s virologist number one Christian Drosten recently said in his NDR podcast: “My goal as a Virologist Drosten, as I would like to become immune now, is: I want to have immunity and then I want to have my first general infection at some point the second and the third have. "

The suicidal control illusionists, even if some reports suggest that, are not those who have been vaccinated or recovered who enjoy their life regardless of the season in Münster or elsewhere, but those who are convinced that they can survive the autumn without a vaccination.