Editorial

Hello everyone, my name is Hassan Rahmat and here’s my editorial for this week, about Finland filing first criminal charges over refusal to take COVID test. This charges are mostly related to people arriving into Finland from abroad, especially from a country with high infection rate that haven’t had both doses of the COVID 19 vaccination and test. Prosecutors are filing chargers in Helsinki district court against defendants for refusing to take the COVID 19 test on arrival into Finland. In my opinion I don’t think people should be fined for not taking the test, but a more soft approach should be used by the government in ensuring people get tested. They should be tested on arrival if they haven’t had the test especially foreigners coming from high rate infected countries. people will refuse to take the test because they are scared of the result being positive (the stigma), fear of the test procedure itself, distrust in government or public health systems, and may not like the idea of being quarantined for a long period of time.

Forcing people to get tested is never the right approach as it violates the person’s right to bodily integrity i.e. not being able to make decisions about what happens to their own body, I suggest the government should find a better approach that will encourage the public and also enlighten them more on how helpful the test and vaccination will be, rather than forcing them.

A good example is the Turku man who got fined for breaking quarantine order by Finland district court when he visited a grocery store during quarantine. The court said that the mans action posed danger to the health of others, so a fine was the adequate punishment for him, and then he was asked to pay 150 euros.

in my opinion, I don’t think this man should be punished or fined for his actions, but rather be enlightened on the outcome of his actions, because a fine is useless as a punishment in this situation, it doesn’t undo the situation, but only encourages people who are very rich and capable to pay fines break the laws at their will.

Dear readers this is my first editorial, I hope you have a nice time reading our articles. Have a nice weekend.