Using a QR code or signing in

wherever we go is compulsory at present. This is supposed to make it quick and easy for others to "contact trace" us if there is a Covid19 outbreak here. Mask wearing in shops and other locations is also compulsory except under certain circumstances.

We were also told that, after twenty-eight days, the information would be destroyed and no records would be available to anyone. Most people started doing what was required of them. In time there have been some lapses. It has had a massive effect on our ability to communicate with each other and that in turn is having a negative effect on mental health. 

Despite that there are still people refusing to get vaccinated - even when we have been told that "opening up" depends on hitting (at minimum) at least 80% of the eligible population being fully vaccinated. They still claim a "right" that is apparently not available to the rest of us.

On top of that it has now been revealed the information we have been so dutifully giving others when we sign in is not being destroyed. It is being stored. How long for? Why? Of what possible interest is it to anyone else that I went to the supermarket or the chemist or the library or the post office or, most importantly, go to visit the Senior Cat?   After twenty-eight days it is surely of no interest to anyone. If I sign in manually (write it down) then I can be anyone at all. I have seen some strange names above me at times. If I use someone else's phone to sign in via "the app" then how do they trace me?

I try to do the right thing. I didn't sign in yesterday when I stopped at the edge of the cafe in the shopping centre. It is open to the public. Unless you buy something there nobody expects you to sign in if you are merely passing by and, like me, stop to speak to someone. 

The person I stopped to speak to is someone else who is dying. She told me, "They just said I won't see Christmas but I will see Christmas. I am not going to let the grandchildren miss Christmas."

I suspect H... will see Christmas. I have never known anyone work so hard at simply staying alive. The lung cancer - and she is another who never smoked - has spread to other parts of her body. I can no longer give her a hug. We aren't supposed to hug people any more and I would have to be so gentle. The last time I did all I could feel was bones. 

I didn't sign in though when I stopped to speak to her. There was no point. It wasn't required. I wasn't buying anything. I could simply prowl on to the greengrocer. The staff there know her and asked if she was "okay today". We agreed on the signing in issue.

People are going to cease doing it if they think their visits everywhere are being stored instead of destroyed at the legislated time. That seems far more dangerous to me than me quite legally stopping to speak to a dying woman in circumstances where it might be sensible to be required to sign in.