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German vaccine firm denies report of US takeover bid

• redsymbol 7y ago
  Here's part of my HN comment from yesterday's article about this, which I feel is worth repeating here: --- An excerpt from [that previous article]: > 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.” 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?
  • downerending 7y ago
    The answer seems to be that it doesn't make any sense, and was in fact fake news. As always, go to the source (when available).
  • eveningcoffee 7y ago
    - In particular: does it accurately represent their intended meaning, in context? This is general problem in journalism. You should always know who is saying something and why.