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The German government has forcefully dismissed allegations by US health secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr that doctors in Germany were prosecuted for issuing mask or vaccine exemptions during the Covid 19 pandemic, calling his remarks inaccurate and misleading.

Germany’s health minister Nina Warken issued a sharply worded response late Saturday, saying Kennedy’s claims had no factual basis. “The statements made by the US secretary of health are completely unfounded and must be rejected,” she said.

Kennedy made the comments in a video shared on X, where he said he had sent a letter to Warken urging an end to what he described as “politically motivated prosecutions” of medical professionals. He offered no evidence to support his assertions and misspelled the minister’s name in the post.

In the video, Kennedy accused the German government of restricting individual medical decision making and undermining the relationship between doctors and patients. He claimed authorities had turned physicians into “enforcers of state policies” and said more than a thousand doctors, along with thousands of patients, faced punishment for issuing exemptions from Covid vaccines or mask requirements.

He did not cite specific cases or official data, but argued that Germany was penalizing doctors who prioritized patient choice and citizens who declined vaccinations. He added that democracies built on trust and transparency should not take such an approach and urged Germany to restore what he called medical autonomy.

German officials rejected that narrative outright. Warken said there was never a legal requirement forcing doctors to administer Covid vaccinations and stressed that medical professionals were free to decide whether to offer them. According to her statement, criminal proceedings were pursued only in cases involving fraud or forged medical documents.

“Anyone who did not wish to provide vaccinations for medical, ethical or personal reasons was not subject to prosecution or sanctions,” Warken said. She also emphasized that patients in Germany retain the right to choose which medical treatments they accept.

Former health minister Karl Lauterbach, who oversaw Germany’s pandemic response, also weighed in, criticizing Kennedy’s remarks and urging him to focus on challenges within the US healthcare system. He pointed to issues such as shorter life expectancy and high medical costs in the United States.

“In Germany, doctors are not punished by the government for issuing false medical certificates,” Lauterbach said, adding that the country’s judiciary operates independently of political influence.

Kennedy has long been known for his skepticism toward vaccines and has drawn criticism for promoting theories that conflict with established medical science. His comments on Germany come amid broader controversy surrounding his role in the Trump administration’s Make America Healthy Again agenda, which critics say has amplified vaccine misinformation.

The exchange highlights growing tensions between public health approaches in different countries and underscores how pandemic policies continue to fuel political debate well beyond the height of Covid 19.