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> The Welt am Sonntag story spoke to an anonymous German government source as saying Trump was trying to essentially buy the work from the scientists for a vacc

> The Welt am Sonntag story spoke to an anonymous German government source as saying Trump was trying to essentially buy the work from the scientists for a vaccine, “but only for the United States.” Bareknuckle and self-interested as Trump's foreign policy may be at times, I have a hard time believing he'd go so far as to deny the world a vaccine for this, though I do see the sense in attempting to acquire promising research teams in order to avoid the overhead of multi-organizational collaboration. If the last four years have taught me much, it's that anonymous government officials say a lot of things. I can't read German, does the original article do anything to validate this claim?

JanSt 7y ago
The german ministry of health confirmed[1] the newspaper report. If this is true it's a major turning point in the trans-atlantic partnership. [1] https://www.tagesspiegel.de/wissen/so-agiert-trump-beim-coronavirus-usa-wollen-deutsche-impfstoff-forscher-anlocken/25645578.html https://www.tagesspiegel.de/wissen/so-agiert-trump-beim-coro...
- InTheArena 7y ago
  Unless there is a new set of information out there, there has been no confirmation on the exclusivity as part of the negotiation, only the outlandish statements of a socialist politician who is pushing for a top to bottom overhaul of the German health care system. The same sources have been getting a lot of the basic facts wrong (such as the company already being partly owned by the bill and melinda gates foundation, and a large portion of their research happening in Boston). I suspect that this is the same xenophobia that is resulting in the same rumors floating around the US that China has a vaccine that they are denying the rest of the world. Regardless, it might make sense to wait a bit for facts to come out.
  - SketchySeaBeast 7y ago
    In this case do you mean the world's xenophobia of the states? I find it hard to believe that this message somehow stokes the United States to xenophobic sentiment.
    - InTheArena 7y ago
      Germany. The Xenophobia in the states that there are some who believe that the Chinese are doing the same to the US.
      - SketchySeaBeast 7y ago
        Why would that be only limited to Germany? The whole world saw that news story, knowing it would have effects on everyone that's not in the US.
hans_castorp 7y ago
> I have a hard time believing he'd go so far as to deny the world a vaccine for this, I think outside the U.S. no one would be surprised if he really did that. Or blackmail other countries into some deal that's only great for him, but not for the rest of the world.
netsharc 7y ago
He's desperate to stay president, probably because next stop is prison (or maybe not, the rich and powerful get away with everything). I can imagine his thinking was, "If I can cure Americans, I can brag, 'I fixed the problem here first, no other country could manage a vaccine as fast as us!', and that will guarantee my reelection.". As a non-USAian, I can really see that he doesn't give a shit about the rest of the world, because the rest of the world can't vote him to stay in or out of office, but can be used as a base for his performance, for him to brag "Look how I delivered".
josefresco 7y ago
"I have a hard time believing he'd go so far as to deny the world a vaccine for this" American here: You HAVE NOT been paying attention.
mcv 7y ago
> "I have a hard time believing he'd go so far as to deny the world a vaccine for this" It's hard to imagine anyone would think like that, but keep in mind that Trump sees everything as a zero-sum game. For him to win, others have to lose. If he's losing due to Corona, he assumes others are profiting from it somehow. That's probably where the hoax talk came from. It's a bizarre and harmful way to view the world, but all evidence suggests that this is how he really thinks.

JanSt 7y ago

The german ministry of health confirmed[1] the newspaper report. If this is true it's a major turning point in the trans-atlantic partnership. [1] https://www.tagesspiegel.de/wissen/so-agiert-trump-beim-coronavirus-usa-wollen-deutsche-impfstoff-forscher-anlocken/25645578.html https://www.tagesspiegel.de/wissen/so-agiert-trump-beim-coro...

InTheArena 7y ago
Unless there is a new set of information out there, there has been no confirmation on the exclusivity as part of the negotiation, only the outlandish statements of a socialist politician who is pushing for a top to bottom overhaul of the German health care system. The same sources have been getting a lot of the basic facts wrong (such as the company already being partly owned by the bill and melinda gates foundation, and a large portion of their research happening in Boston). I suspect that this is the same xenophobia that is resulting in the same rumors floating around the US that China has a vaccine that they are denying the rest of the world. Regardless, it might make sense to wait a bit for facts to come out.
- SketchySeaBeast 7y ago
  In this case do you mean the world's xenophobia of the states? I find it hard to believe that this message somehow stokes the United States to xenophobic sentiment.
  - InTheArena 7y ago
    Germany. The Xenophobia in the states that there are some who believe that the Chinese are doing the same to the US.
    - SketchySeaBeast 7y ago
      Why would that be only limited to Germany? The whole world saw that news story, knowing it would have effects on everyone that's not in the US.

hans_castorp 7y ago

> I have a hard time believing he'd go so far as to deny the world a vaccine for this, I think outside the U.S. no one would be surprised if he really did that. Or blackmail other countries into some deal that's only great for him, but not for the rest of the world.

netsharc 7y ago

He's desperate to stay president, probably because next stop is prison (or maybe not, the rich and powerful get away with everything). I can imagine his thinking was, "If I can cure Americans, I can brag, 'I fixed the problem here first, no other country could manage a vaccine as fast as us!', and that will guarantee my reelection.". As a non-USAian, I can really see that he doesn't give a shit about the rest of the world, because the rest of the world can't vote him to stay in or out of office, but can be used as a base for his performance, for him to brag "Look how I delivered".

josefresco 7y ago

"I have a hard time believing he'd go so far as to deny the world a vaccine for this" American here: You HAVE NOT been paying attention.

mcv 7y ago

> "I have a hard time believing he'd go so far as to deny the world a vaccine for this" It's hard to imagine anyone would think like that, but keep in mind that Trump sees everything as a zero-sum game. For him to win, others have to lose. If he's losing due to Corona, he assumes others are profiting from it somehow. That's probably where the hoax talk came from. It's a bizarre and harmful way to view the world, but all evidence suggests that this is how he really thinks.