Somewhere in Germany...a woman picks up the phone, dials a number and waits.
Hello.
Hi, this is Mrs. XOXO, I'm calling to get news on my husband.
Your password please...
This is a real scenario playing out many times in Germany each day. The easy jokes, such as How come German husbands are password protected aside, what is going on?
The dialog reflects the latest German innovation in medical privacy. Gone are the days when a stupid radio host could call up a hospital pretending to be a spouse or parent and get information on a patient.
We do not see any contradiction to the mantra of certain public figures telling us to get used to not having any privacy any more. Of course, joking about the need of various unnamed entities for updating algorithms to filter out these strangely conspiratorial phone calls is in order. The subject should soon be picked up by German comedians, stay tuned.
While the emotions inherent in hospitalization tend to lend seriousness and gravitas to the matter, we do hope to hear when someone tries to use hemorrhoids, or band-aid or some other interesting password.
Hospital admissions clerks will very likely hint that certain passwords are not acceptable, and common sense would tell use that hemorrhoids is one of them. But hey, why not use the occasion to get back at the hubs even though you are genuinely worried.
Hemorrhoids or not, privacy is not dead yet.
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