Individual freedoms and the Pandemic

Las Libertades Individuales y la Pandemia

In Colombia, by law, public holidays are moved to the following Monday; in the case of 1 November, which fell on a Sunday, the public holiday is moved to Monday, thereby creating a new public holiday. This results in a three-day bank holiday weekend, which also coincides with the celebration on 31 October of Children’s Day, known as ‘Halloween’. A very special day for the “little ones”, as it is a time of unlimited fun for them, which this year, unfortunately for them, coincided with the pandemic. Well, in Colombia, many local authorities set about ‘caging’ the children with curfews that often lasted for four or five days, from Friday to Tuesday. Is this overzealousness worth it for the section of the population
that presents the lowest risk of COVID-19 transmission? Is it worth trampling on their individual rights in this way? The other, more vulnerable sector of the population is the elderly, who, fortunately, as a result of a court order, were removed from ‘state protection’; otherwise, they would still be ‘caged in’ indefinitely, in flagrant violation of their individual rights.