While we should absolutely be throwing resources at capable scientists now, attempting to purchase exclusivity rather than maximizing availability by freely distributing validated knowledge as widely as possible is precisely the wrong approach. If this story is true, it suggests that the administration's response to an acute human crisis is to consolidate power at any cost. Whether such a policy is driven by fear or avarice is secondary to the fact of its aggressively zero-sum nature.

This is a really misleading title. The evidence here is extremely thin, and The Guardian has no actual source, just reports from _Die Welt_ that themselves claim only an anonymous source.

I suggest something more like: “Anonymous German source claims that Trump offered…”. It's a lot less misleading, and a lot less interesting.

Stories on HN have to be in English, and English-language German sources (like DW) are just quoting Die Welt. You seem to have missed the detail that the German government confirmed the veracity of the quotes attributed to sources within it.

According to the article, the German government would only confirm the accuracy of the quotes attributed to its spokespersons:

> the German health ministry would only confirm the accuracy of the quotes attributed to one of its spokespersons in the article

The health ministry did not confirm the anonymous claim that “Trump was doing everything to secure a vaccine against the coronavirus for the US, ‘but for the US only’.” Spokespersons, by definition, do not speak anonymously.

I hope this clears things up for you.

Yes, that's what I said, and no additional clarification from you is required. You may find the following updates to be of interest, including confirmation from the german interior minister:

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-german...

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/europe/germany-coronavi...

But the German government has not denied anything stated by their officials in the story.