German med students praised for standing up to protesters

BERLIN (AP) — German officials have praised a group of medical students who held a silent vigil outside a hospital in Dresden late Thursday in protest against a rally by far-right vaccine skeptics. Saxony’s governor thanked the students Friday on Twitter. He said they had made a “clear and important statement.” Germany’s health minister told reporters in Berlin that the student’s call for people to get vaccinated against COVID-19 had his “emphatic support.” Lauterbach said it was “disturbing” that some of the medical students reportedly face fines after police singled them out for allegedly breaching pandemic restrictions. But he added that he didn’t have enough information to properly assess what had happened.