A Facebook post claims the German government has halted the use of Covid-19 vaccines, saying they are unsafe.
The post states there has been a two week “pause” of licensing of the drugs so the government can “reflect on damages being caused to their people”.
Some of the claims in the post are mentioned in an accompanying video, which was reportedly created as part of a fictitious pandemic planning scenario.
None of it is true.
While the German government did suspend the use of the AstraZeneca vaccine in March for under 60s because of a rare blood clot risk, it has not halted the licensing of vaccines generally or their authorised use.
According to reports, last month the German Chancellor, Angela Merkel, said the country’s 16 state governors had agreed that state, federal and local governments must promote Covid-19 vaccination and make it easy for citizens to get vaccinated.
Last week health minister Jens Spahn said that if vaccination numbers don’t increase, German hospitals may be overwhelmed with Covid-19 patients by the end of the year.
The German government recently made the decision to phase out free testing for Covid-19 in the hope that, by also making proof of vaccination or a negative test a requirement of attending venues, such as indoor restaurants, the cost of repeatedly paying for tests will act as an incentive to encourage vaccination.
As of 6 September there have been more than 4 million confirmed Covid-19 cases in Germany which have led to 92,346 deaths.
As of 2 September, 54.5 million people in Germany had received at least one dose of the vaccine.