Germany has quietly abandoned one of its most contested COVID policies. As of last week, the country no longer recommends the shot for healthy people under 75, pregnant women included. Previous guidance called for annual boosters starting at age 60.
Notably, this is not related to safety concerns. Germany’s vaccine advisory board says the reasoning behind the change is that most of the population now has hybrid immunity, built from a combination of vaccination and prior infection, and severe COVID cases have become rare outside high-risk groups. The shot remains recommended for people 75 and older, high-risk patients, long-term care residents, certain healthcare workers, and pregnant women with serious medical complications.
Germany is not an outlier. Most countries on the continent already limit yearly boosters to people over 60. The UK sets the bar at 75, unless someone is immunocompromised. Even the World Health Organization recommends boosters only for older adults and does not recommend vaccinating healthy children altogether.
That leaves one major holdout: the United States, still recommending the shot for every age group six months and up, healthy or not.
That policy is being dictated by a single judge.
Last year, HHS under Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. moved to narrow the recommendation for healthy young people and pregnant women. A coalition of major medical groups sued, arguing the change ignored the science. In March, Biden-appointed Judge Brian Murphy agreed, calling HHS’s move “arbitrary and capricious” and ordering the agency to reverse course.
That ruling stands despite real evidence of harm — including deaths — in the very populations it affects. The FDA’s most senior vaccine official, Vinay Prasad, admitted in a November email that for healthy young people, the risks of the mRNA shots outweigh the benefits, and that children died after receiving doses they never needed.
The public is not convinced either. A recent Rasmussen poll found 47% of American adults think it’s likely that vaccine side effects caused a significant number of unexplained deaths, including a quarter who say it’s very likely. Only 39% call that unlikely.
Confirms there is more evil in the US than Germany
This is purely about money. Germany is broke and the people are pissed off. In an effort to quell dissent they lobbed this wet noodle out to the conservatives. Won't work.
In the US there's still more blood money to be squeezed out of the turnips who still insist on getting shots.