Germany is still seeing a serious spike in new COVID cases, hospitalizations and deaths. As with so many other countries, they’re also running into serious snags in deploying the new vaccines to their people. They’ve locked down much of their population and quarantines are still mandatory for those who have been exposed to someone who tests positive. The problem is, just as in parts of the United States, not everyone is willing to be locked down in quarantine voluntarily. It’s not a few people, either. There’s been some fairly stiff resistance. So what are they going to do about it? In the hardest-hit parts of Germany, repeat offenders will reportedly be rounded up and placed in camps of some sort with guards watching them. (NY Post)

Germans who repeatedly refuse to quarantine after being exposed to COVID-19 will be held in detention centers — and even under police guard, according to reports.

Officials in the state of Saxony — which is experiencing one of the worst outbreaks in the European nation — have already approved plans to hold quarantine-breakers in a fenced-off section of a refugee camp, The Telegraph said.

Another state, Brandenburg, also plans to use a section of a refugee camp.

If there’s anything positive to take away from this story, perhaps it can help some of us feel a little less annoyed (or even angry) at the lockdowns and self-quarantine “advisories” here in the United States. It’s almost tempting to pump out some memes saying, “Relax. It’s not so bad. You could be in Germany.”

Of course, European Union residents, for the most part, aren’t used to enjoying the same level of personal freedom that Americans are accustomed to. (Or at least we were accustomed to it until last year.) But even in the worst states with the most oppressive governors and mayors, we still haven’t reached that level of dictatorial control… knock on wood.

Having said all of that, we really need to address the elephant in the room here, assuming it wasn’t already obvious to everyone. Out of all the countries on the face of the Earth, if there was just one that you might think would know better than to start talking about loading people up and hauling them away to “camps” or “detention centers” with guards watching them, don’t you think it might have been Germany? I’m not saying that they don’t have a serious problem with flattening the curve or whatever we’re calling it these days, but… really?

Locking up your own citizens over public health policy is bad enough to begin with, but surely Angela Merkel must realize that the optics of this policy are obscene. She’s just summoning up those grainy, black and white film clips we’ve all seen a million times of the forlorn faces of families piled into trains between 1933 and 1945. We’re in the 21st century now, for Pete’s sake. If you insist on treating your own non-compliant citizens like criminals, couldn’t you just start slapping ankle monitors on them?

This isn’t a joking matter. We have to get the immunity situation squared away because things out there are not getting better in terms of authoritarian overreach. They are getting worse. Europe will always be more susceptible to such impulses than America, but what happens over there could, at some point, take root and spread over here. At that point, the Constitution will be little more than an afterthought that’s been shelved in the name of a declared state of emergency. And if you think that’s a hyperbolic view to take, just ask any of your friends of Japanese ancestry.