"When did the pandemic become endemic?", part 8 of the series "After The Pandemic. A Fictional Story" by Karin Sawetz
The Christmas surprise of one of the last meetings, the snowball AI had become already part of Joyce's life journey before the mid-40 years old even knew that there exists an especially for her from the friends of her mother developed artificial intelligence program. The AI - called after its first appearance 'Snowball' - was enabled by Joyce for Sarah and Naomi as a practical family communication tool which takes part of the conversation when asked - and sometimes without invitation.
"The pandemic ended when the majority decided that the low risk for the vaccinated makes it arguable,” contributes the genderless voice of Snowball simply summarizing the calculations of pandemic facts from the history databases from countries around the world to the question of Sarah when the pandemic became endemic.
Today, the three women meet for breakfast at the orangery of Naomi's house. It's 8.00 o'clock in the morning. The homey left wing of the large glasshouse is filled with the smell of coffee, fresh bakery and the fruit notes of the bakeries' warm fillings such as the powidl-like (Austrian word for plum jelly) but very fluffy cream from a plum-fruit-creation by Naomi. Joyce's dog Sweetie is outside in the garden, playing with its new dog sitter drone.
"What happened with all the collected data such as from mobility tracking during the lockdowns and the massive control measures with the health passes, I think they were called Green Passes?" asked Sarah while observing with concern the German shepherd's play with the drone; it's not the first - expensive - drone of Sweetie. “Snowball is the best source for answering your question,” recommends Naomi who is just coming back from the kitchen bar of the side-wing, carrying a tablet with a coffee porcelain service in organic design with filigree 3-dimensional green-leaves decoration.
The kitchen bar is moveable and she could have positioned it closer to the table. But that's Naomi - and balancing fine porcelain on the tablet is one of grandmother’s self-determined challenges. “Snowball, have you heard! What has my mother done during lockdown?” Joyce laughs. “Snowball, seriously. Which data about Naomi are available in databases from that time?” The answer comes promptly: “Thanks to Naomi and her friends, the data entries were deleted.” Sarah turns her head to the breakfast table and looks at Naomi who just places the coffee cups and pot, “Cool”.
“Yes, I know. It was not legal but it was right. History has shown that people have always stood up against bad laws - and won. It’s almost a natural human reaction. But we haven’t deleted everything. We left necessary information in an anonymized format for scientific research. We only kept the noses of small and corrupt civil servants and administration workers out from the data. They have not only started to make money with fake vaccination certifications. The whole digital system was primitive at that time. Nothing was secured and the lower the moral level, the greater the interest in sensitive data. Medical data was turned with the pandemic into ‘open books’ by officials. In this regard, the law changed during the pandemic without the knowledge of the people.” “How did you find out that privacy standards for citizen data and how officials secure them have changed?” asks Sarah while standing at the kitchen bar and selecting three small baked oatmeal buns which are formed after the fruits the fillings inside are made of. She chooses the plum, the strawberry, and the apple bun.
“It was pure coincidence. I never thought that this would happen as medical data were especially protected by the law. People understood that it was necessary to show the Green Pass - this was okay. But with this step, the barrier has fallen and other medical data were requested by officials - and I don’t mean health authorities. I had an encounter with a body of public authorities working with a database that wasn't developed for this form of sensitive data. I recognized that the request after sensitive data had become a routine.” Sarah takes her seat in the comfortable chair made of rattan from very durable palms planted once for that reason at grandmother’s orangery. She bites in the apple bun and asks with full mouth: “How did you find out that the data collected during the pandemic have been improperly stored and used. What made you sure?” “I wasn’t sure. It was only an assumption. But with this assumption started the investigation. That’s how it goes, Sarah. It was pure luck.” says Naomi, pouring her granddaughter coffee into the cup.
