{"id":689112,"date":"2026-01-11T15:02:10","date_gmt":"2026-01-11T15:02:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/689112\/"},"modified":"2026-01-11T15:02:10","modified_gmt":"2026-01-11T15:02:10","slug":"germany-rebukes-rfk-jr-s-claims-berlin-prosecuted-doctors-over-covid-vaccine-politico","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/689112\/","title":{"rendered":"Germany rebukes RFK Jr.\u2019s claims Berlin prosecuted doctors over Covid vaccine \u2013 POLITICO"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;Anyone who did not wish to offer vaccines for medical, ethical or personal reasons were not criminally liable and did not have to fear penalties,&#8221; she said.<\/p>\n<p>Warken added that &#8220;criminal prosecution took place only in cases of fraud and forgery of documents, such as the issuing of false vaccine certificates&#8221; or exemption certificates for masks.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0&#8220;Doctors [in Germany] decide independently and autonomously on the treatment of patients,&#8221;\u00a0the minister stressed, adding that &#8220;patients are also free to decide which treatment they wish to receive.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Kennedy <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/SecKennedy\/status\/2009991504081678824?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E2009991504081678824%7Ctwgr%5E5c072df17136bae5c221fcd9eee8ebb1522aea8d%7Ctwcon%5Es1_c10&amp;ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.dw.com%2Fen%2Fgerman-health-minister-rejects-robert-kennedys-covid-claims%2Fa-75463757\" target=\"_blank\">said<\/a> in a video post on Saturday that he had written to Warken after receiving reports that Germany was restricting \u201cpeople\u2019s abilities to act on their own convictions\u201d in medical decisions.<\/p>\n<p>He claimed that \u201cmore than a thousand German physicians and thousands of their patients\u201d faced prosecution for issuing exemptions from mask-wearing or Covid-19 vaccination requirements during the pandemic.<\/p>\n<p>Kennedy did not provide specific examples or identify the reports he cited, but he said Germany was \u201ctargeting physicians who put their patients first\u201d and was \u201cpunishing citizens for making their own medical choices.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He accused Berlin of undermining the doctor\u2013patient relationship and replacing it with \u201ca dangerous system that makes physicians enforcers of state policies.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Former German Health Minister Karl Lauterbach also pushed back on the claims, <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/Karl_Lauterbach\/status\/2010033273637089752?s=20\" target=\"_blank\">telling<\/a> Kennedy on X to \u201ctake care of health problems in his own country.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"&#8220;Anyone who did not wish to offer vaccines for medical, ethical or personal reasons were not criminally liable&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":689113,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5310],"tags":[1433,2000,299,1824,81183,3941,77507,34778,4348,208154,6738,1093,6717,49,17288],"class_list":{"0":"post-689112","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-germany","8":"tag-coronavirus","9":"tag-eu","10":"tag-europe","11":"tag-germany","12":"tag-global-health","13":"tag-health-care","14":"tag-health-security","15":"tag-health-systems","16":"tag-healthcare","17":"tag-karl-lauterbach","18":"tag-patients","19":"tag-public-health","20":"tag-transatlantic-relations","21":"tag-united-states","22":"tag-vaccines"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115877074856639662","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/689112","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=689112"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/689112\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/689113"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=689112"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=689112"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=689112"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}