Memorandum on Vaccination Queue Snack
A person brought a snack to their vaccination appointment. The queue moved faster than expected. The snack was not needed. It has been brought to every appointment since.
SUBJECT: Annual Review of Vaccination Queue Snack (VQS): FY2021
Status: Active. Accompanying appointments where wait times have averaged eleven minutes.
Summary of Findings
Vaccination queue snack was first deployed in March 2021 at a large-scale vaccination site where wait times were estimated at forty-five to ninety minutes. The wait time on that occasion was thirty-two minutes. The snack was not consumed. It was returned home intact.
VQS has accompanied five subsequent appointments. Mean wait time across all six appointments: fourteen minutes. Total snack consumption from queue waiting: zero.
Deployment Rationale at Origin
The original deployment was rational. A first-dose appointment at a newly opened site, estimates from social media of long queues, personal history of blood sugar sensitivity. The snack addressed a plausible risk that was eventually not realized.
The snack addressed a problem that existed once. It now accompanies a process that no longer has the problem the snack was brought to address.
Behavioral Persistence
After the March appointment, the person began including VQS in appointment preparation without evaluating whether the preparation was necessary. The snack is selected the evening before. It is placed near the door. It is transferred to bag at departure.
This sequence has been performed five times for appointments at which the person was in and out in under twenty minutes and reported no hunger at any point during the visit.
The Measured Concern
The concern is not the snack. The snack is a protein bar or a piece of fruit. It weighs negligible amounts. The concern is the persistence of a preparation behavior beyond the conditions that produced it, and the absence of any moment at which the behavior was evaluated against current conditions.
The appointments changed. The preparation did not. Nobody scheduled a review.
Adjacent Behaviors Under the Same Pattern
A water bottle accompanies all appointments. A portable charger accompanies all appointments. A printed copy of the appointment confirmation accompanies all appointments despite the confirmation being accessible on the phone.
Each of these was rational at a specific prior appointment. Each has persisted without evaluation. Combined preparation time: twelve minutes per appointment.
Recommendation
A brief review before the next appointment: does the estimated wait time justify the preparation? If yes, prepare. If no, note that the preparation can be skipped, skip it, and observe whether the outcome differs.
The review has not been conducted. The preparation has not been skipped. The appointments continue.
File for next annual review.