"Any business opening pursuant to this provision must comply with the pertinent CSP's [sic] set out in the "All Together New Mexico: COVID-Safe Practices for Individuals and Employers" [link added].
In the "All Together New Mexico" document, it is a "best practice"
for all employers "to support contact tracing, retain a daily log for at
least four weeks including the date, name, phone number of all customers
and employees who enter the workplace"
Further it is "required" for restaurants to "To support contact
tracing, retain a daily log for at least four weeks including the date,
name, and phone number or email address of all customers and employees who
enter the establishment".
Lastly, it is "required" for automobile dealers & services [sic] to
"Retain a daily log for at least four weeks including the date, name, phone
number and email address of all customers and employees."
Casting aside the three different versions of the mandate, it is notable
that this is not a requirement, but rather a "best practice" under the
"all employers" section for any of the other categories of businesses
delineated in the document:
- Retail
- Office & Call Centers
- Grocery Stores & Farmers' Markets
- Youth Programs
- Manufacturing, Warehouse & Food Production
- Hotels, Resorts & Lodging
- Golf Course
- Tour Operators
- Houses of Worship
- Farms, Ranches & Dairy Producers and Processors
- Veterinarians & Animal Care Facilities
- Construction & Field Operations
- Medical Providers & Other Industries
What's so special about restaurants, car dealers, and mechanics?
Restaurants have been operating in New Mexico for takeout and delivery
since the coronavirus shutdowns began. Why do they now suddenly have to keep
track of who comes into the building? It's not because of dine-in customers,
because the requirement is for "All customers [emphasis added],"
not just dine-in customers.
Further, is it reasonable to believe that car mechanics are somehow more
conducive to viral spread than a store? It sure seems like people spend more
time going around and touching things in a clothing or electronic store for
example than they would at a mechanic. Additionally, like restaurants, car
mechanics [including the service side of dealerships] never shutdown. Why,
like restaurants, are they suddenly required to keep a log?
Who's responsible for an error in the log?
Let's say a patron comes in and says their name is "Micky Mouse," and their
email is "micky@disney.com." Surely the employee in charge of the contact
tracing log knows that's not true, but what can they do about it? Are they
required under the State's CSPs to challenge the customer and get them to
provide real information?
If a patron comes in and provides believable yet false information like
"John Wilson [sounds real enough to me]," and "505-827-2613" [Kathyleen Kunkel's office phone], is the employee expected to validate the information in some way? What
happens if the State determines that an individual with COVID-19 did in fact
come into the establishment, and finds out that this false information was
provided by a customer? Would the business be liable for having
collected false information?
Has contact tracing gone too far?
Is it really believable that a customer with COVID-19 who comes into a
restaurant in the morning for takeout can infect someone who comes in that
evening (remember, the logs are required to keep track of the date, not the
time, that someone enters a business)? It seems far-fetched, especially
with the regular cleaning that businesses are required to do under the
CSPs.
Contact tracing is supposed to find everyone who could potentially have
been infected by someone who is later determined to have had a communicable
disease [in this case COVID-19]. But when contact tracing becomes too broad,
suddenly a huge chunk of the population is determined to have been in
contact with an individual. And then all of those people can be tied to even
more people. Just like the
Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon, a single person can indirectly have contact with thousands of
people.
Yet the vast majority of those thousands of people won't contract COVID-19.
Further, since they will be told by a State contact tracer that they have
been in contact with a COVID-19 positive person, they may decide to
self-isolate for 14 days, or be denied the ability to go to work or enter
parks due to their inability to "pass" a health screening that asks about
contact. Is it really necessary to scare someone by saying they might have
COVID-19, and then have them sit-it-out for two weeks because of extremely
indirect contact?
There's a fine-line in contact tracing, and New Mexico's contact tracing
logs cross that line.
That's Just My Thought.
Here's our sources, so you can decide for yourself:
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