
Germany tries to stop U.S. from luring away firm seeking coronavirus vaccine - nocturnial
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-germany-usa/germany-tries-to-stop-u-s-from-luring-away-firm-seeking-coronavirus-vaccine-idUSKBN2120IV
======
jszymborski
Instead of competing bids, US & Germany should be pooling funds for a cure,
and carrying out the research wherever the firm feels is most time/$
efficient.

If anything, the agreement should be conditional on vaccine being distributed
to all funding countries, in order of some index of global health priority.

I'm not loving this, especially since things haven't even gotten as bad as
they're likely to get.

~~~
arez
why would you work together with the US? They would steal and patent the
results in the end or just claim that they invented it because they're the
best country anyway and "America First". If the US politics don't change they
will be left behind by Europe and China. I know that there are also a lot of
US people who don't like Trump, but those people need to step up. Why is
nobody protesting? Why isn't there a big Anti-Trump movement? The whole
country is either cheering or watching it happen in shock

~~~
coliveira
There is a big anti-trump movement, but people are unwilling/afraid to protest
on the streets. The US has traditionally suppressed protest movements,
consider for example occupy WS and Black Lives Matter.

~~~
tristor
Neither of those movements were "suppressed". That's an extraordinary claim
and I'd love to see some evidence. Last time I checked, OWS went on unabated
until it collapsed under its own weight due to no clear direction or
leadership. BLM continues to this day and performs protests all over the
country, some of which have resulted in violence and rioting, yet are not
touched by most cities.

There are a lot of people, myself included, that don't like Donald Trump, but
it is just factually untrue to say that the US is suppressing protests. It's
more accurate to say most people are more focused on waking up in the morning,
getting to work, and feeding their families than whatever shenanigans are
happening around them.

~~~
coliveira
"Throughout our country’s history, the federal government has used the fear of
threats – real or perceived – to conduct surveillance on domestic groups and
people who look or act different. Civil rights and anti-Vietnam War activists
in the 1960s and 1970s, American Muslim civil rights leaders and academics
post-9/11, and the FBI’s recent, expansive racial, religious, and ethnic
mapping program are a handful of examples.

Modern protest movements speak, associate, and organize through social media.
Their tweets, blogs, protests, marches, and die-ins are the trumpets by which
they call for reform and social justice. Government monitoring of activists’
protests – simply because these activists dissent and without any evidence of
wrongdoing – threatens to discourage them from speaking, associating, and
expressing as is their right under the First Amendment. Surveillance of
#BlackLivesMatter protests also opens the door to racial profiling because the
movement is Black-led."

[https://www.aclu.org/blog/racial-justice/government-
watching...](https://www.aclu.org/blog/racial-justice/government-watching-
blacklivesmatter-and-its-not-okay)

~~~
tristor
I agree with you that those things happen and are wrong. However, they don't
meet the bar of "suppression". Suppression is an action, it's an active thing.

When China arrests doctors for posting on social media about a new disease or
when they fire tear gas at people and beat them with clubs while they are
protesting peacefully on the streets in Hong Kong, THAT is suppression. It's
also a problem that we live in a massive world of surveillance enabled by
commercial entities and exploited by governments, but that is not in itself a
form of suppression.

If you were to consider this suppression, then technically we are all
suppressed in our everyday lives from nearly any activity or statement which
dissents from the norm. Meanwhile, over here in reality I'm well known among
friends and coworkers as being a cranky guy who dissents about nearly
everything for good reasons that most people are too busy with their lives to
care about.

Hanlon's Razor feels like it's necessary to be invoked, or at least a
corollary here. No shadowy conspiracy makes protest movements in the US
ineffective, what makes them ineffective is that the average American is
/just, barely/ comfortable enough in their daily life to not consider it worth
it to join. Even when people are uncomfortable, they fear losing what little
they have on a slim promise of change if they join a protest movement.

My statements are not to laud the state of the US or the actions of our
government, just to defend the sanctity of meaning behind our words.

------
blattimwind
Coincidentally, CureVac's board of directors replaced its American CEO with
one of the German founders yesterday.

~~~
dharma1
from the founder:

[https://endpts.com/curevacs-ingmar-hoerr-tells-us-why-he-
ret...](https://endpts.com/curevacs-ingmar-hoerr-tells-us-why-he-returned-to-
take-on-a-pandemic-ngm-loses-a-president/)

------
lordnacho
Why would the company need to exclusively sell to the US? Is the supply
expected to be limited? Once the drug is discovered, can't it be licensed
around the world for mass production?

~~~
radicalbyte
If your competitor can't restart his economy but you can then you have a
massive advantage over them.

~~~
tristor
Please explain how that'd advantage the US? The US spent hundreds of billions
of dollars to restart the German economy and rebuild Europe post-WW2 as part
of the Marshall Plan. Modern Europe nearly owes its existence to the herculean
efforts of Americans. There is absolutely no reason we'd try to stifle or
damage Europe now. We are allies.

~~~
KingOfCoders
When does this myth die? 70 years, is this version still taught where you went
to school (US?)?

"hundreds of billions of dollars"

Germany received $14B (in 2020 $). Most of the money was loans and Germany
made the last debt payment in 1971.

The Marshall plan had three goals: 1.) Start the US peace time economy and
help transition companies from wartime production to consumer goods 2.)
Prevent communist influence in Europe by preventing starving Europeans 3.)
Open European markets to US companies by reducing barriers and regulations.

"The Marshall Plan aid was mostly used for the purchase of goods from the
United States." \--Wikipedia

"Its role in the rapid recovery has been debated. The Marshall Plan's
accounting reflects that aid accounted for about 3% of the combined national
income of the recipient countries between 1948 and 1951, which means an
increase in GDP growth of less than half a percent." \--Wikipedia

~~~
KingOfCoders
That aside grateful to every US soldier who risked his life or lost his life
to free Europe, especially those that gave chocolates to my starving parents.
They can always have a free lunch here.

------
submeta
German here. I am wondering if German government cannot prevent this legally
(national security reasons?)

~~~
mrits
Of course they can. But I'm not sure Germany wants to start a trade war.

~~~
foepys
If millions of their citizens' lifes are at risk, Germany will take its
chances with that.

~~~
mrits
Starting a trade war against your #1 trade partner is not on your list to
handle the upcoming EU recession.

~~~
foepys
Neither is losing your population and losing votes to far-right political
parties just because you didn't want to upset America. Other EU countries
would also side with Germany on that, I suppose.

Doesn't matter anyways since it was reported a few minutes ago, that the
vaccine patent is not for sale to the US once available.

------
MandieD
God I’m glad that Bavaria is pretty much under lockdown starting tomorrow,
because I’m not sure I’d want to show my American* face in public right now.

*I blend in really well - until I open my mouth and Texas-accented German comes out.

~~~
13415
You're lucky you're in Bavaria, though. Germany apparently has 25,000
intensive care beds with respirators. The country I currently live in has less
than a thousand.

~~~
mundu_wa_hinya
I'd be surprised if the country I live in has more than 300 ventilators.. for
a population of 40mil.

------
jpdus
The 80% shareholder (which was a co-founder of SAP and ironically a very
controversial person in German football) just send a press release out
(German):

"Walldorf, 15. März 2020 – Die dievini Hopp BioTech holding GmbH & Co. KG,
eine Beteiligungsgesellschaft von SAP-Mitgründer Dietmar Hopp mit
Investitionsschwerpunkt in innovative Biotechnologieunternehmen, nimmt
Stellung zu Presseberichten über eine vermeintliche exklusive Vergabe eines in
der Entwicklung befindlichen Impfstoffs von CureVac gegen das Corona-Virus.
dievini ist seit 2005 an der CureVac AG, Tübingen, beteiligt an der sie über
80% der Anteile hält. Zweitgrößter Aktionär ist die Bill-und-Melinda-Gates-
Stiftung, die gemeinsam mit CureVac Impfstoffe gegen eine Reihe von
Infektionserkrankungen entwickelt.

„Seit wir 2005 dievini gründeten, bin ich davon überzeugt, dass das Verstehen
molekularer Zusammenhänge Diagnose und Therapie auch schwerster Erkrankungen
für Patienten weltweit transformativ verbessern wird“, sagt Dietmar Hopp. „Dem
Ziel, alle Menschen vor Infektionen zu schützen und Patienten weltweit besser
therapieren und im besten Fall heilen zu können, bin ich ebenso verpflichtet,
wie meiner Absicht, nachhaltige innovative Infrastruktur und Arbeitsplätze in
Deutschland zu schaffen. Wenn es uns hoffentlich bald gelingt, einen wirksamen
Impfstoff gegen das Corona-Virus zu entwickeln, soll dieser Menschen nicht nur
regional sondern solidarisch auf der ganzen Welt erreichen, schützen und
helfen können. Ich wäre froh, wenn dies durch meine langjährigen Investitionen
aus Deutschland heraus erfolgen würde.“

\----

The most important point is the last sentence: If we are sucessful finding a
vaccine, it shouldnt be available only regionally but for all people
worldwide.

~~~
foepys
Interesting. This might get Dietmar Hopp rehabilitated in the football
community. Fans called him (translated ideomatically) "bastard" for the last
few weeks because of his (alleged illegal) investments into his own football
club.

------
madez
Dang, would you mind taking a look at the behaviour in this thread? The
content and the voting feels very odd and unusual.

~~~
0xff00ffee
Odd and unusual? It matches the political climate of the US. We have a largely
despised president with a small following of fanatics. This is what it looks
like reflected on social media sites like HN.

~~~
madez
As distastrious as it might be that this may be part now of US American
culture, it doesn't need to start happening here nor be tolerated. The nature
of this place is that we can talk with reason and share facts based on
evidence. If people seek to disturb that, for whatever reason, I advocate for
corresponding moderation.

~~~
0xff00ffee
> The nature of this place is that we can talk with reason and share facts
> based on evidence.

This has been the utopia of the tech nerd mentality for over 30 years since I
first started using UseNet. The reality is, this kind "reasoned and fact-
based" discussion model (a) doesn't really exist when there are subjective
components or unknowably complexities, but worse (b) it is actually used to
suppress discussion! The number of times I've observed discussion with people
using "logic" to gatekeep is uncountable.

The fact of the matter is: some topics are messy and you can't just throw
around "logic" and make it go away. Well, you can sequester yourself, but good
luck with that.

------
phkahler
Another angle: the US is acting like so many large companies that don't or
can't innovate, but try to buy new things instead.

------
ramboldio
Here is another German newspaper with some more info:
[https://www.sueddeutsche.de/politik/corona-trump-
impfstoff-c...](https://www.sueddeutsche.de/politik/corona-trump-impfstoff-
curevac-1.4845350)

Trump offered around (only?) 1B € for the exclusive development of the
vaccine.

Apprerently 80% of the company is held by the SAP co-founder Dietmar Hopp. I
would guess that his incentive to accept sth like this is quite slim.

------
mrich
CureVac's main investor is Dietmar Hopp. He's one of the founders of SAP and
8th richest German at the moment. He's also been known to donate large amounts
of money, just recently he gifted $100 million to build a new center for heart
surgery in Heidelberg.

Long story short, I would not expect him to be convinced by anything monetary
at this point in his life. He's a class act and would probably be embarrassed
to be helping Trump.

He's also much deserving of the success he's having with this venture here, to
my understanding he kept many biotech firms alive when the going got though.

------
haunter
Timeline:

03.03 CureVac CEO meets Trump [0]

03.11 CureVac removes the CEO [1]

03.15 CureVac denies the american buyout news [2]

[0] [https://www.curevac.com/news/curevac-ceo-daniel-
menichella-b...](https://www.curevac.com/news/curevac-ceo-daniel-menichella-
ber%C3%A4t-mit-us-pr%C3%A4sident-donald-trump-und-mitgliedern-der-corona-task-
force-entwicklungsm%C3%B6glichkeiten-eines-coronavirus-impfstoffes)

[1] [https://www.curevac.com/news/company-founder-ingmar-hoerr-
su...](https://www.curevac.com/news/company-founder-ingmar-hoerr-succeeds-
daniel-menichella-as-ceo-of-curevac-ag)

[2] [https://www.curevac.com/news/curevac-focuses-on-the-
developm...](https://www.curevac.com/news/curevac-focuses-on-the-development-
of-mrna-based-coronavirus-vaccine-to-protect-people-worldwide)

------
l0b0
A Reuters article is flagged? Can we have some context as to why?

~~~
jackcosgrove
I am not sure why it was flagged, but the Reuters article was edited after
publication without a notice of such a change. Specifically the following can
no longer be found in the article.

> Contacted by Reuters, a spokeswoman for the German Health Ministry said: "We
> confirm the report in the Welt am Sonntag."

------
salimmadjd
One possibility is using sanctions to decide which country can have the
vaccine.

The assumption is the virus will naturally spread, so controlling which
country gets or doesn’t get the vaccine is a form of an indirect biological
warfare.

There is already efforts to block European countries from sending medicine to
Iran as an example [0].

What we should be thinking about is at what point are we going too far with
these strong-arming tactics. Outside of humanitarian arguments, there is the
possibility that leaving the virus unchecked, it will ultimately find its way
to our shores.

[0] [https://theintercept.com/2020/03/05/iran-coronavirus-
medicin...](https://theintercept.com/2020/03/05/iran-coronavirus-medicine-
sanctions/)

------
yingw787
To put a positive light on this disturbing news, I, like many here, am deeply
grateful to the scientists and engineers (including at CureVac) working
tirelessly around the clock and around the world to help develop a vaccine,
save millions of lives, and let us all return to normal life.

I'm sick with something viral at the moment, and I hope to do my part by
social distancing, disinfecting public surfaces I'm touching, and working
pretty much exclusively from home. Flatten the curve, and let those who truly
need it take the ICU beds and hospital spaces. One way or another, it'll be
over before we know it :)

------
spectramax
US-EU ties are a much deeper than what the current US president has stirred
up. What an embarrassment. Give 8 months and perhaps have a new president and
things may turn for the better. I vividly recall the support and warm of the
people of Europe, their messages and prayers during the 9/11 attack.

When we must cooperate with others, we must look for common principles,
underlying foundation of a country. China can become a super power bully
around other countries into a dystopian world. Is that what we want in
Germany? German companies having to apologize to the CCP for offending them?

My theory around the election of Trump through a number of incidents that lead
up to it - Russian objectives to dismantle US-EU, Chinese objectives to
bankcrupt US by paying off their executives to move the factories to China,
Democrats vs Republicans polarization and Trump dropping the American
credibility. It is sad. Remember, Trump didn't win popular vote. When middle
America is bankrupt, there is no food on the table, drug use is through the
roof - they will want some change in Washington, Trump gets elected. I don't
want my kids to grow up to a world where democracy is dying, western countries
are infighting and there is an increasing risk of complete and utter lack of
freedom, loss of privacy and obsolence of liberty.

What a sad world to be in. China can be amazing super power if it suddenly got
rid of CCP and had an open minded democracy, inspiring and building a model of
how other nations can follow. Instead, we are seeing a regression and
nationalism rising around the world. Same thing in India.

------
mgolawala
The fundamental problem is that the narrative of the current administration is
that globalization and global co-operation has been bad for the United States
and that this policy has resulted in the U.S. being taken advantage of.
However, the correct response to this pandemic would go against this narrative
completely. It is a common foe faced by all nations, and is an ideal situation
for being tackled through global co-operation!

The current administration is continuing to try to solve this problem without
turning to global co-operation. If the vaccine is developed in Germany, or the
UK or China, the U.S. would then need to license this technology, and it would
reveal that the U.S does in fact need the world, and that global co-operation
is, at the very least, needed in some situations. It would lose face. If on
the other hand, the administration can claim "Look! We developed the vaccine
here in the U.S. .. I told you we didn't need those other guys. We will take
care of Americans first, and then we will help the others." then it would
validate the "America first" narrative.

------
roywiggins
The best chance we have against this thing is international cooperation.

This doesn't bode well, if the US government thinks it can spend its way into
getting the vaccine before everyone else.

"Contacted by Reuters, a spokeswoman for the German Health Ministry said: "We
confirm the report in the Welt am Sonntag.""
[https://www.cnbc.com/amp/2020/03/15/coronavirus-germany-
trie...](https://www.cnbc.com/amp/2020/03/15/coronavirus-germany-tries-to-
stop-us-luring-away-firm-seeking-vaccine.html?__twitter_impression=true)

~~~
theferalrobot
Yeah and if you actually read the Reuters report it says the exact opposite of
this business insider drivel.

> The U.S. government has spoken with many (more than 25) companies that claim
> they can help with a vaccine. Most of these companies already received seed
> funding from U.S. investors... any solution found would be shared with the
> world

[https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-
german...](https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-germany-
usa/germany-tries-to-stop-u-s-from-luring-away-firm-seeking-coronavirus-
vaccine-idUSKBN2120IV)

~~~
roywiggins
Just because those companies say that doesn't mean the Trump administration
doesn't think it can buy an exclusive cure for itself. That they can't doesn't
matter as much as they appear to be _trying_.

The Welt am Sonntag report says "US-Präsident Donald Trump versucht offenbar,
deutsche Wissenschaftler, die an einem potenziellen Corona-Impfstoff arbeiten,
mit hohen finanziellen Zuwendungen nach Amerika zu locken beziehungsweise das
Medikament exklusiv für sein Land zu sichern." which Google Translate assures
me means "US President Donald Trump apparently tries to lure German scientists
working on a potential corona vaccine to America with high financial donations
or to secure the drug exclusively for his country."

And the German health ministry confirmed the Welt story to Reuters.

[https://www.welt.de/wirtschaft/article206555143/Corona-
USA-w...](https://www.welt.de/wirtschaft/article206555143/Corona-USA-will-
Zugriff-auf-deutsche-Impfstoff-Firma.html)

~~~
theferalrobot
Right they confirmed that the US has been reaching out to companies to supply
funding, which is what I just quoted. There is no evidence other than
anonymous sources that the Trump admin was looking for an 'exclusive' cure
only for the US.

------
InTheArena
This article is incorrect. This company already has a large footprint in the
United States in Boston, which is the epicenter of much of the covid effort.
In addition, it's backed by the Bill and Melinda gates foundation (which
apparently has a stake in the company).

The same rumors are going around about China buying US companies.

This kind of mob-raising by the media happens in every pandemic, and it does
result in people being killed. Knock this shit off until the facts are in.

~~~
Certhas
The fact that the company is also in Boston is also reported in the German
article. That's besides the point though. The real story in this is that
reportedly the US Government was/is looking to secure _exclusive_ access.

~~~
grandmczeb
Is there any source for exclusive access besides the “unnamed official” in the
original article?

~~~
ohlookabird
Yes, the German government confirmed the statements in the original article.

~~~
InTheArena
No, the article that confirmed only confirmed that some sort of talk has been
going on - not any of the specifics.

------
hatenberg
Tries. Lol. They ousted the US CEO without much fanfare after he met Trump,
replaced him with the German founder.

The company is tied to a national research and regulatory institute (Paul
Erlich) - they can nationalise it in an instant.

------
ck2
He did this same sh*t with NASA, called in the director and offered him any
budget necessary to get a launch to the moon in time for re-election campaign.

2020 was impossible but guess what, we're uselessly going back for 2023/2024
[https://i.imgur.com/eWLps8L.jpg](https://i.imgur.com/eWLps8L.jpg)

~~~
djsumdog
I thought it was Mars he was pushing for during his presidency?

~~~
dboreham
That was Plan A.

------
StavrosK
> Trump was trying to secure the scientists’ work exclusively, and would do
> anything to get a vaccine for the United States, “but only for the United
> States.”

At this point, I wouldn't be surprised if Trump's goal was to get everyone to
dislike the US, out of some misguided sense that "if you're good, everyone
hates you, therefore if you make everyone hate you that means you're good".

Is he seriously trying to profiteer off the pandemic?

~~~
xbmcuser
Probably he sees this as a way to win the election not about selling it for
more money. He gets the vaccine and then trumps to his base that how americans
only have the vaccine because america is so great etc and he got the vaccine
for them.

~~~
onyva
USA is so far behind China and Europe in so many ways, I don’t think these
type of dirty games are gonna make Americans feel better about themselves.
It’s a dying society and it shows.

------
tibbydudeza
A rather shitty move ... we now know who are "friends" are.

------
WA
CureVac just rejected rumors about an acquisition

[https://www.curevac.com/news/curevac-focuses-on-the-
developm...](https://www.curevac.com/news/curevac-focuses-on-the-development-
of-mrna-based-coronavirus-vaccine-to-protect-people-worldwide)

------
kimsant
How many vaccines will be produced before September 15? Who will get the
shots? People talks about open sourcing and moral, but here we have phisical
constraints, hard decisions will have to be done. In Italy they already do not
intubate people older than 80, for example... Is not that doctors are evil, is
that phisical world is limited.

------
alkonaut
Would pharmaceutical companies be able to protect any IP for a vaccine? I mean
wouldn’t governments just require a company that discovers a vaccine to
quickly distribute the findings so every pharmaceutical company in the world
can help manufacture it?

------
jdm2212
Gonna go out on a limb and say this is a (dumb) Trump ploy to get reelected.
If _only_ America has a vaccine, then in the run-up to the election he'd talk
about how much better we're doing than the rest of the world and hope everyone
forgets how badly his administration mismanaged the outbreak.

~~~
hatenberg
He just does what he always does. Throw money at it. Same as the pornstars.

~~~
jdm2212
The exclusivity bit is what I was referring to. The only reason [1] to make it
US-exclusive is to boost reelection prospects.

[1] There are other, way dumber possible reasons but I guess I'm trying to be
charitable. He might not be able to wrap his head around positive-sum problems
in general, or he might think that the US gains some advantage from all its
trading partners having their economies destroyed.

------
raincom
Trump is more worried about the stock market and the economy. Two more weeks
of blood in the stock market can crush his chances of being reelected. That's
why, I think, he must be trying to get a few weeks advantage.

------
mrfusion
Isn’t the bigger news that there’s a vaccine?

------
mud_dauber
Germany, I apologize.

~~~
Igelau
It's all your fault. Fix this.

------
insulanian
> Welt am Sonntag also quoted an unidentified German government source as
> saying Trump was trying to secure the scientists’ work exclusively, and
> would do anything to get a vaccine for the United States, “but only for the
> United States.”

Why?

~~~
tathougies
I love how 'unidentified German government source' is now enough evidence for
a rather serious accusation.

~~~
flohofwoe
The report has been confirmed by the German government:

[https://www.cnbc.com/2020/03/15/coronavirus-germany-tries-
to...](https://www.cnbc.com/2020/03/15/coronavirus-germany-tries-to-stop-us-
luring-away-firm-seeking-vaccine.html)

~~~
spikels
Not exactly. Here’s the only attributed quote from the German government:

> “The German government is very interested in ensuring that vaccines and
> active substances against the new coronavirus are also developed in Germany
> and Europe,” a Health Ministry spokeswoman said, confirming a quote in the
> newspaper.

> “In this regard, the government is in intensive exchange with the company
> CureVac,” she added.

~~~
flohofwoe
“We confirm the report in the Welt am Sonntag.” - I don't know how much
clearer it can be.

------
exar0815
Lets just say it that way: There is a lot of anti-american undercurrent in the
german population. The obvious hate for germany and the economic war agains
europe and especially germany from the Trump administration did not help that.
Currently, China wants to supply Europe with masks, desinfectant etc... while
our "ally" tries to steal a vaccine. This might do a massive, massive amount
of damage.

------
75dvtwin
With regards to : "... German government sources told Reuters on Sunday that
the U.S. administration was looking into how it could gain access to a
potential vaccine being developed by a German firm, CureVac. ..."

Is there a way, to independently check validity of Reuter's claims?

In the view as extraordinary claims, require 'extraordinary evidence'

My take on reuters, bbc, wash post, new york times ,vox, la times, ars
technica is, that they consider Trump and his administration as their 'sworn
enemy'.

It is not unusual, therefore, for an adversary such as Reuters to engage in
what's called 'Atrocity propaganda'
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atrocity_propaganda](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atrocity_propaganda)

This has been an effective tactics of information warfare.

~~~
75dvtwin
\-- I was downvoted for claiming that Reuters might have lied, and that
Reuters had likely engaged in 'Atrocity propaganda'
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atrocity_propaganda](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atrocity_propaganda)

against US President and his administration.

But I was correct, in this instance - Reuters lied.
[https://www.snopes.com/tachyon/2020/03/curevac-
tweet.png](https://www.snopes.com/tachyon/2020/03/curevac-tweet.png)

------
redsymbol
Dear God, HN, exercise some reading comprehension.

The part that's making so many commenters here shut their brains off:

> Welt am Sonntag also quoted an unidentified German government source as
> saying Trump was trying to secure the scientists’ work exclusively, and
> would do anything to get a vaccine for the United States, “but only for the
> United States.”

The quote above is manipulating you into believing that the USA is attepmting
to prevent Germans from getting that vaccine. THAT'S the part that is
completely not real.

EDIT: Some of the questions you want to ask when you see an article quote like
this:

\- Who is this unnamed source, exactly?

\- Is the article accurately representing what they said?

\- In particular: does it accurately represent their intended meaning, in
context?

\- Does that person speak for the German government? Or is this one government
employee's opinion?

\- If a German company moves its research labs into the USA, but remains a
German company - like the article says - wouldn't that make it impossible for
them to hide the secret formula for a vaccine?

\- Why would the USA (or any country) even try to keep a vaccine formula
secret, in the face of a global pandemic like this? If you think about it, is
that comic-book-villain scenario even plausible?

~~~
wool_gather
Are you saying that the quote is false?

What's the reading of "only for X" that doesn't equal "not for Y"?

------
Myce
As a Dutch citizen I would prefer Americans to have control over this
technology than any other country. Merkel has never really cared for
German/European citizens but rather for the rest of world. Perhaps it's a
trauma of WW2, and she wants to do good.

However in these times it's important that own citizens are prio 1. Trump
cares for Americans and America has hardly ever let it's Western European
allies down.

From my perspective it's in good hands in the U.S. and I trust anything that
comes out of it will also benefit the rest of the world eventually.

~~~
foepys
You seriously want to have a county that is touting America First for the last
4 years in control over medicine that might cure or at least protect your
fellow citizens instead of your neighbor and biggest trading partner that is
also part of the same governing organization?

You have to be a troll or have a very strange agenda, seriously.

~~~
Myce
Have you followed the situation in Europe lately? It's a mess. Also during
these times, no coordination of the EU at all. When it comes to it, every
country is on its own. But worst is that European leaders are afraid to
quickly take (tough) measures, something American leaders have shown to do
much easier.

------
Igelau
> unidentified German government source

i.e. the bored intern with nothing better to do than make stuff up. Sprinkle
in some quotes from actual high ranking officials on adjacent topics, and you
can almost make it feel like it's the same conversation. Hurray journalism.

~~~
ohlookabird
The article from "Die Welt" including these quotes has meanwhile been
confirmed by the German government (e.g.
[https://www.handelsblatt.com/unternehmen/industrie/curevac-u...](https://www.handelsblatt.com/unternehmen/industrie/curevac-
usa-wollen-zugriff-auf-deutschen-entwickler-von-corona-
impfstoff/25646012.html?ticket=ST-593117-UggXAW7k3Hy7qMA5isCA-ap4)).

I suppose the apology you would expect according to your tone in case of
misinformation and wrong speculation is not one you would give yourself.
Hurray ...

~~~
Igelau
I'm not asking for apologies. I have no idea what the link you sent me says,
nor what Handelsblatt is. If you're trying to prove something you're going to
need to serve up something better than that.

------
baq
plausible, but I could easily see how this would be Chinese propaganda. no way
to tell. I'm not sure which alternative is worse.

~~~
arez
It's officially confirmed: "Germany’s Health Ministry confirmed a report in
newspaper Welt am Sonntag"

~~~
spikels
Don’t think it’s Chinese propaganda but this is the only “official” statement
in the article:

> “The German government is very interested in ensuring that vaccines and
> active substances against the new coronavirus are also developed in Germany
> and Europe,” a Health Ministry spokeswoman said, confirming a quote in the
> newspaper.

> “In this regard, the government is in intensive exchange with the company
> CureVac,” she added.

All the extreme statements are attributed to unnamed sources. Sadly you need
to read news articles carefully these days.

~~~
Igelau
It's embarrassing to see so many fellow humans falling for it in this thread.

------
kimsant
Best case scenario, vacine will be available to everyone in the north by the
end of summer, worst case scenario, there's not gonna be anything and in
October we will have another pandemia with mutations that eventually will be
more deadly.

As it happened with other 2nd rounds of a pandemia in history.

Now If we get to discover something and the deployment can be only done to X%
of the population who do we save? Our own country or the neighbors?...

Italy was asking to Europe for medical supply and nobody responded, every
single country is gonna play egoistic in this topic and don't expect anyone to
give thousands of millions in missed workforce to save the older in neighbor
countries. Cold reality.

~~~
kimsant
I assume that mass production of a vacine works by multiplying an initial
sample, so the exponential growth can't be started in every country at the
same time, there is a time constraint and is global

