The Trump Administration denied that it had attempted to pressure a German company to sell its coronavirus vaccine to the United States, after multiple media outlets claimed it did.
As The Daily Caller notes, the report initially came from the German newspaper Welt am Sonntag, which claimed that the Administration pressured the German company CureVac while its executive, Daniel Menichella, was visiting the White House. Further speculation arose after Menichella, who previously announced that CureVac was “confident” in its ability to “develop a potent vaccine candidate within a few months,” confirmed that he was leaving CureVac.
CureVac subsequently confirmed on Twitter that the story was false, and that it had not received any offer from the United States government. United States Ambassador to Germany Ric Grenell further debunked the story, calling it “not true,” while also criticizing the media, including Business Insider and Reuters, who “went with it anyway despite not having their own sources.”
Breitbart then reported that Reuters had quietly edited its initial version of the story, adding in comments from Administration officials confirming the story as false, though the story had already been shared by other reporters before its edit.