The German government is sharply rebuking U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. for claims he made over the weekend about a lack of medical autonomy in the country. Germany’s federal health minister says his claims are “completely unfounded, factually incorrect, and must be rejected.”

The condemnation follows Mr. Kennedy’s claims that German doctors are being prosecuted for giving patients exemptions from certain pandemic-era health measures. He says Germany’s federal health minister, Nina Warken, is unfairly “targeting” doctors and patients. 

“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,” Mr. Kennedy claimed in his message posted to X over the weekend. 

Ms. Warken says the claims are baseless. 

“The statements made by the U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services are completely unfounded, factually incorrect, and must be rejected. I would be happy to explain this to him personally,” the health minister said in a statement Sunday, which was first reported by the German government-financed news outlet, Deutsche Welle. 

“The scope of services covered by statutory health insurance is based on proven scientific evidence and is not determined by politicians. Likewise, patients are free to choose which therapy they wish to undergo,” she continued. “During the Covid-19 pandemic, there was never an obligation for physicians to administer vaccinations against the virus. Those who chose not to offer vaccinations for medical, ethical, or personal reasons were neither committing a crime nor facing sanctions.”

Ms. Warken says that there “was no professional ban or fine for not vaccinating.” All prosecutions “occurred exclusively in cases of fraud and forgery, such as the issuance of false vaccination certificates or fake mask certificates,” she said. 

Ms. Warken, a member of the center-right Christian Democratic Union, has served as health minister since last year. Her predecessor, Karl Lauterbach — a member of the center-left opposition party — echoed her sentiments in a post on X Sunday. 

“Esteemed @SecKennedy should focus on health problems in his own country,” Dr. Lauterbach wrote, saying that “short life expectancy, exorbitant costs, tens of thousands of drug overdose deaths and murder victims” should be Mr. Kennedy’s top concerns.  

“In Germany, doctors are not punished by the government for issuing false certificates. With us, the courts are independent,” he added.

A French member of the European Parliament, Aurore Lalucq, was even more scathing in a social media post. “Who do you think you are, exactly? We’re not your colony,” she said in response to Mr. Kennedy’s comments. “Take care of your own people — we’re doing just fine.”

Mr. Kennedy — a known vaccine skeptic — centered much of his 2024 run for the presidency on ensuring medical freedom for Americans following the pandemic. He has faced intense criticism from Republicans and Democrats alike for slashing funding for public health programs and research projects. 

Over the course of the last several months, he has fired President Trump’s director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, stacked an independent vaccine advisory board with individuals who have long expressed opposition to vaccinations, and warned pregnant women against using acetaminophen for fear that it can lead to children developing autism.