Germans who repeatedly refuse to quarantine after being exposed to an individual with confirmed COVID-19 will be held in detention centers, reports Lee Brown in his January 18, 2021 article for New York Post. According to Brown, this plan will be implemented in the states of Saxony, Brandenburg, Schleswig-Holstein, and Baden-Wuttemberg. In some of these states, repeat offenders will be held in fenced-off refugee camps (Saxony), while in other states, detention centers will be in hospitals guarded by the police. Authorities explain that the detention will only be implemented on those who continue to break quarantine even after getting fined.

Editor’s Note: What is the boundary between lawful and just arrest and abuse of authority? As the article says, German states are allowed to detain repeat offenders under an emergency law passed by the German Bundestag in March 2020. But if states are allowed to pass laws that curtail freedoms of people utilizing questionable evidences, how can we be sure that regulations are still for the benefit of the general public? We ask this question because, far too often, governments make decisions without accountability to their citizens. Look at how governments rushed into lockdowns only to destroy entire economies and the livelihood of millions of people.

When governments pass laws without regard for the total well-being of its people, it is not the government that suffers. It is the citizens who must try to survive despite the difficulties. What is the point of having representatives in the government if their decisions do not consider our wellbeing and their regulations lead to even greater suffering?

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