As a matter of principle, German law also applies to military bases in Germany used by the US — including Ramstein Air Base. However, US Armed Forces enjoy certain special rights under the NATO Status of Forces Agreement (NATO-SOFA) and supplementary agreements. German law enforcement action in this matter requires the willingness to cooperate or consent of the US armed forces.
Part of this hospital will be a BSL-3 laboratory being built by the construction firm HT Group. This laboratory is intended to study highly infectious pathogens of risk group 3 (e.g., SARS-CoV-2, H5N1, dengue virus, hantavirus) for the purpose of treating American soldiers from crisis areas who may bring potentially dangerous diseases.
News of this laboratory's construction has alarmed German public opinion. Journalists such as Florian Warweg, as well as opposition politicians, are demanding clarification of fundamental questions concerning the safety of the German population, as well as transparency and oversight by German authorities. The German government, for its part, notes that German regulations and procedures apply and must be complied with in the context of the new hospital. Under §15 of the regulation governing Level 3 protection laboratories, operations may commence only after obtaining a permit from the competent German administrative authority. The application and documents to be submitted include, among other things, a description of planned activities and the result of a risk assessment, as well as structural, technical, organizational, and individual protective measures. Only after the complete documentation is submitted is a decision made on the establishment of such a laboratory on German territory.
The federal government states that the hospital is not planned as a research laboratory. It is precisely this context that is generating many questions and uncertainties in Germany. Germans fear that research and possibly even experiments involving dangerous infectious diseases will take place on their soil.
Legal responsibility and oversight of the hospital laboratory in Weilerbach will rest with the state of Rhineland-Palatinate. For this purpose, each federal state issues its own authoritative regulations. The German government stresses that, in consultation with the federal authority, the state health department and the relevant occupational safety and health office in Kaiserslautern will verify compliance with safety standards at regular intervals. The operator — that is, the American Defense Health Agency (DHA) — is responsible for the proper observance of all safety standards during laboratory operations.
[Aleksandra Fedorska is a journalist for Tysol.pl and numerous Polish and German media outlets]
