Interim Order on Vaccination Proof Request
The document existed. It was stored in three separate locations. None of them were the location where it was needed.
Interim Order on Vaccination Proof Request A Counterfactual Analysis
What Happened
A request was made for vaccination proof. The proof existed. It had been photographed, saved to a cloud service, forwarded to a personal email address, and printed once for a different occasion. None of these storage locations were immediately accessible at the point of request.
The request was made at a counter. The counter had other people behind it.
What Would Have to Be True for This to Go Smoothly
Consider a version in which the document is stored in a location that is opened by habit before any appointment or entry requirement. In that version, the phone's home screen includes a folder labeled with the document type. The folder is checked before leaving, as a step that has been practiced sufficiently to feel automatic.
That version requires a practice to have been established before the document was relevant.
The practice was not established before the document was relevant.
The Actual Sequence
The cloud service was opened. The document was not in the expected folder because the folder name used at the time of storage was different from the folder name used during the search. The email inbox was searched. The email containing the document image was located after forty seconds, by which point the people at the counter were observing the search with neutral expressions.
The document was found. The form was completed. The entry was permitted.
The Counterfactual Finding
The proof is not the problem. The proof's location at the moment it is requested is the problem, and it is always the same problem. A document that exists but cannot be produced at the required moment is operationally equivalent to a document that does not exist, except that it costs more time to not find.
A document known to exist is searched longer than a document known not to exist. The search is longer because stopping the search requires accepting that the known document is not findable, which is a different conclusion from the known-absent case.
The Absurd Rule
Several people in this situation have created dedicated albums, app folders, and wallet passes for vaccination proof and related documents. These systems are created at the moment of a failed search and are maintained reliably for approximately three weeks, after which new documents are stored in the original ad-hoc manner while the organized system persists for documents that no longer need organizing.
Interim Order
The document has been located and is now stored in four locations. The interim order is that this constitutes adequate preparation for the next request. Whether the four locations will include the one where the phone is opened at the moment of the next request is not addressed by this order.
The order is interim.