US Health Secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr on Saturday blasted Germany, claiming that thousands of doctors in the country are facing legal action for issuing vaccine and mask exemptions during the coronavirus pandemic, reported dpa.<\/p>\n
“I’ve learned that more than a thousand German physicians, and thousands of their patients, now face prosecution and punishment for issuing exemptions from wearing masks or getting Covid-19 vaccines during the pandemic,” Kennedy said in a video posted on X.<\/p>\n
He accused Germany of “sidelining patient autonomy,” saying he had written a letter to German Health Minister Nina Warken asking her “to restore medical autonomy” and “end politically motivated prosecutions.”<\/p>\n
In the post, Kennedy misspelled the minister’s name as “Workin.”<\/p>\n
It was not immediately clear which legal cases Kennedy was referring to, and he did not cite a source for the figures he mentioned.<\/p>\n
Warken swiftly rejected the accusations, describing them as completely unfounded and factually incorrect.<\/p>\n
“Doctors decide independently and autonomously on the treatment of patients,” the minister stressed, adding that “patients are also free to decide which treatment they wish to receive.”<\/p>\n
During the coronavirus pandemic, Germany introduced a number of measures aimed at curbing the spread of the virus, including wearing masks indoors in public places and on public transport.<\/p>\n
This was later replaced by proof of vaccination in many places, however getting a Covid-19 vaccine was never mandatory.<\/p>\n
Numerous people have been prosecuted over accusations of faking vaccination documents or medical certificates to be exempted from wearing a face mask, but no physician has faced legal action for refusing to administer vaccines, Warken said.<\/p>\n
Kennedy, a nephew of late US president John F Kennedy, is a known vaccine sceptic, who has repeatedly been accused of spreading vaccine misinformation and often promotes the debunked claim that vaccines cause autism.<\/p>\n
Kennedy accused the German government of “violating the sacred patient-physician relationship, replacing it with a dangerous system that makes physicians enforcers of state policies.”<\/p>\n
“When any government criminalizes doctors for advising their patients, it crosses a line that free societies have always treated as sacred,” he said in the video.<\/p>\n
Former health minister hits back<\/strong><\/p>\n Former German health minister Karl Lauterbach also fiercely rejected Kennedy’s criticism, pointing instead to problems within the US health care system.<\/p>\n “Honourable Secretary Kennedy should focus on health problems in his own country: low life expectancy, extreme costs, tens of thousands of drug-related deaths and murder victims,” he wrote on X.<\/p>\n “In Germany, doctors are not punished by the government for issuing false medical certificates. Our courts are independent.”<\/p>\n Lauterbach, a member of the centre-left Social Democrats, served as health minister from December 2021 to May 2025.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"US Health Secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr on Saturday blasted Germany, claiming that thousands of doctors in 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