The primary cause of reported disease is diagnosis, so maybe they’ll do something about that.
thephyber · 10h ago
“If we stop testing for Covid, the number of infections will go down!”
sroussey · 10h ago
You jest, but the current administrations way of dealing with global warming and carbon levels in the atmosphere is to stop measuring those things.
Insanity · 11h ago
I would laugh about the current state of US government if it wasn’t so sad.
kulahan · 11h ago
"How then shall we perform it?--At what point shall we expect the approach of danger? By what means shall we fortify against it?-- Shall we expect some transatlantic military giant, to step the Ocean, and crush us at a blow? Never!--All the armies of Europe, Asia and Africa combined, with all the treasure of the earth (our own excepted) in their military chest; with a Buonaparte for a commander, could not by force, take a drink from the Ohio, or make a track on the Blue Ridge, in a trial of a thousand years.
At what point then is the approach of danger to be expected? I answer, if it ever reach us, it must spring up amongst us. It cannot come from abroad. If destruction be our lot, we must ourselves be its author and finisher. As a nation of freemen, we must live through all time, or die by suicide."
-Abraham Lincoln, Lyceum speech, 27 Jan, 1838
treetalker · 11h ago
“Stupidity is a more dangerous enemy of the good than malice. One may protest against evil; it can be exposed and, if need be, prevented by use of force. Evil always carries within itself the germ of its own subversion in that it leaves behind in human beings at least a sense of unease.
“Against stupidity we are defenseless.
“Neither protests nor the use of force accomplish anything here; reasons fall on deaf ears; facts that contradict one’s prejudgment simply need not be believed — in such moments the stupid person even becomes critical — and when facts are irrefutable, they are just pushed aside as inconsequential, as incidental. In all this the stupid person, in contrast to the malicious one, is utterly self-satisfied and, being easily irritated, becomes dangerous by going on the attack.”
— D. Bonhoeffer
JohnFen · 10h ago
Fear is even more dangerous and crippling than that. In part because fear makes us stupid.
pstuart · 11h ago
It's surreal watching the collapse from the inside. Part of me is at the point of "fine! you all get what you deserve", but then I think of my kids and the others, future generations getting completely fucked for no fault of their own.
0cf8612b2e1e · 11h ago
It is so frustrating. Even if these idiots disappear tomorrow, it will take decades to recover. Why go into science/government to make a positive difference if you know the next hate-filled administration could end your career for some cheap political wins?
Insanity · 11h ago
Honestly I think people don't talk about this long-term impact often enough, and you're 100% right. It's not just the impact today - it's the future state. What used to be a job with 'security' is now a lower-security and often lower-pay job.
mwpmaybe · 9h ago
The only people who will work for the government are the people who know they can abuse and personally profit from it.
pstuart · 8h ago
There's plenty that want to do the right thing for the right reasons, but this admin is not the place for that.
If we ever recover from this fiasco, we're going to have to do some serious reckoning of how to avoid it in the future.
Insanity · 11h ago
Yeah, I have a strange kind of fascination with it. I read a lot about the Roman republic, it's rise and demise, and it feels like living through the fall of another 'empire'.
Writings were on the wall for the Roman republic for a long tine before it happened. Same with the US today.
AnimalMuppet · 11h ago
Well, if history rhymes, I'd guess we're about at Sulla.
senectus1 · 6h ago
I get really annoyed with the constant comparison with the "Fall of Rome".
This is not the same thing. This is a concerted attack from within, these people are deliberately dismantling a democratic society for personal profit.
Insanity · 3h ago
Do you mean fall of Rome (empire) or fall of Rome (republic)?
Fall of Rome’s republic was deliberate and for personal gain / profit.
Edit:
And I’m not saying it’s a one-to-one comparison, like a bad sequel film.. I’m saying that it’s comparable at a layer of abstraction. The fall of two large “empires” with a ton of influence on the world.
senectus1 · 22m ago
fair point.
jauntywundrkind · 8h ago
List of people who have just left the CDC:
Director, office of public health data, Jennifer Layden
Director of the National Center for Emerging Zoonotic Infectious Diseases Daniel Jernigan
Chief Medical Officer Deb Houry
Director of the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases Demetre Daskalakis
Director Monarez.
What bold does reality & truth have these days. A revolt against reason, a revolt against truth, a revolt against a nation. This whole era has seen the rise of such a vicious enemy against the world. #HostisHumaniGeneris
(Some of these may be semi coincidental to what's coming next, but it's all part of the same insurrection against science.)
CoastalCoder · 11h ago
If he already knows, but is delaying telling us, then what should he say to the future individuals who are only autistic because of that delay?
I'm struggling to think of any legitimate reason for not telling us right now.
fallinghawks · 11h ago
Trump has a trope about saying he'll have a big announcement or deal with something "in 2 weeks" -- something that sounds lofty but the delay is long enough for it to pass out of the news cycle. I think RFK is doing the same here.
jgeada · 11h ago
It is the worms in the brain, isn't it?
avgDev · 11h ago
The cause is......democrats!
I am kidding but I doubt he knows the cause, it is a complex issue.
thephyber · 11h ago
You and I know that it’s a complex issue which probably has a complicated mix of genetic and several environmental factors.
But RFK Jr doesn’t seem to care about facts or truth or objective reality as much as he cares about pushing a simple narrative.
In his narrative-driven reality, there is nothing which can’t be blamed, including Democrats.
RobLach · 11h ago
It’s impossible for me to think of what purpose taking this deliberate misinformation effort to this extent can have.
I can only consider that this is a purposeful attack on the American people and government credibility from the top. And if so, how could someone be so influenced to follow it through? Is it just a personal hatred of Americans justifying harm to them?
exogeny · 11h ago
We truly live in the dumbest timeline.
bamboozled · 11h ago
It’s destructive, it’s by design, not dumb
thephyber · 10h ago
I think that’s the fitness function of the Trump admin, but not the fitness function of RFK Jr who has been chasing this for decades. He clearly cares more about simple narratives than any factual truth.
fallinghawks · 11h ago
Air pollution [1] but since things like pollution and climate change are too woke, I'm sure RFKJr will have a different reason.
Let me guess: The aluminum found in vaccines. Of Course. Why didn't we think of that? It only took an addled, evil, brain-wormed, drug-infested moron to point it out. Never mind there are 1000s of clinical studies showing no impacts. THOUSANDS. We should print out all that evidence, put it in 300 page volumes, enclose them in binders with ribbons, box them up, and drop it from an airplane onto his house!
hmmokidk · 11h ago
Lmao
JohnFen · 11h ago
No, he won't. He'll just spout more of his usual bullshit.
thephyber · 11h ago
I’m not so sure.
The timeline he set for himself was artificial. His assertion that it was for sure caused by environmental factors and his department could find it in a few months was artificial.
His team clearly used AI (without reasoning features and without ensemble challenges) to write public documents, leaving the hallucinated research footnotes in the document.
He clearly doesn’t care about accuracy precision or truth, so he very well may announce some cause in September. I’m sure his _Children’s Defense Fund_ has their own “research” which draws conclusions that he will most likely crib from.
treetalker · 11h ago
[flagged]
dang · 1h ago
Can you please make your substantive points thoughtfully? Regardless of how right you are or feel you are, snark is the wrong thing to optimize for on HN.
Remember, the space lasers were manned by the Jews and Republicans like Jews now.
pupppet · 7h ago
It’s funny the HN’ers who support this administration won’t dare reveal themselves by sharing their views but they are sure here lurking and downvoting where they see fit.
sgnelson · 5h ago
Those people are called cowards.
kccoder · 7h ago
Cowards aren't known for standing up for their convictions.
subsection1h · 6h ago
To give credit where credit is due, the long-time HN user and Trump supporter named refurb did reveal himself and expressed happiness about "finally getting some adults in the room," with "adults" being RFK Jr., Bondi, Hegseth, Gabbard, Noem, Vought, McMahon, etc.
Just like the Epstein files and climate change! Why those damn dirty democrats are always up to no good!
bamboozled · 11h ago
Clearly trans* and immigrants
slowmovintarget · 11h ago
He's going to say it's 5G, isn't he? Please don't say it's 5G. heavy sigh
tzs · 9h ago
A better bet is WiFi. He's complained at least as much about WiFi danger as he has about 5G, and WiFi is much more widespread and also 20 years older than 5G. Its availability to the public and growth correlates a lot better with the rise in autism rates.
0cf8612b2e1e · 11h ago
Can we take bets on Obama in a ghost mask a la Scooby Doo?
rasz · 11h ago
windmills
Incipient · 4h ago
Naa this guy prefers tilting at other things.
Varelion · 11h ago
You imbecile — it was the emails!
treetalker · 11h ago
"'clearly almost certainly'" !
DemocracyFTW2 · 9h ago
I'm happy to see this woke liberal BS flagged /s
damnesian · 11h ago
Turning it into this big media circus is beyond the pale.
sottol · 11h ago
Acetaminophen/Tylenol? Nah, it's more palatable to blame the vaccines than give up those sweet pain-killers.
Considering it is basically the only over-the-counter pain med allowed during pregnancy, I think we will learn that this government doesn't understand the difference between causation and correlation.
JohnFen · 10h ago
Tylenol causes pregnancy! Since they seem to be so worried about fertility rates, maybe Tylenol use will be made mandatory.
At what point then is the approach of danger to be expected? I answer, if it ever reach us, it must spring up amongst us. It cannot come from abroad. If destruction be our lot, we must ourselves be its author and finisher. As a nation of freemen, we must live through all time, or die by suicide."
-Abraham Lincoln, Lyceum speech, 27 Jan, 1838
“Against stupidity we are defenseless.
“Neither protests nor the use of force accomplish anything here; reasons fall on deaf ears; facts that contradict one’s prejudgment simply need not be believed — in such moments the stupid person even becomes critical — and when facts are irrefutable, they are just pushed aside as inconsequential, as incidental. In all this the stupid person, in contrast to the malicious one, is utterly self-satisfied and, being easily irritated, becomes dangerous by going on the attack.”
— D. Bonhoeffer
If we ever recover from this fiasco, we're going to have to do some serious reckoning of how to avoid it in the future.
Writings were on the wall for the Roman republic for a long tine before it happened. Same with the US today.
This is not the same thing. This is a concerted attack from within, these people are deliberately dismantling a democratic society for personal profit.
Fall of Rome’s republic was deliberate and for personal gain / profit.
Edit:
And I’m not saying it’s a one-to-one comparison, like a bad sequel film.. I’m saying that it’s comparable at a layer of abstraction. The fall of two large “empires” with a ton of influence on the world.
Director, office of public health data, Jennifer Layden
Director of the National Center for Emerging Zoonotic Infectious Diseases Daniel Jernigan
Chief Medical Officer Deb Houry
Director of the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases Demetre Daskalakis
Director Monarez.
What bold does reality & truth have these days. A revolt against reason, a revolt against truth, a revolt against a nation. This whole era has seen the rise of such a vicious enemy against the world. #HostisHumaniGeneris
(Some of these may be semi coincidental to what's coming next, but it's all part of the same insurrection against science.)
I'm struggling to think of any legitimate reason for not telling us right now.
I am kidding but I doubt he knows the cause, it is a complex issue.
But RFK Jr doesn’t seem to care about facts or truth or objective reality as much as he cares about pushing a simple narrative.
In his narrative-driven reality, there is nothing which can’t be blamed, including Democrats.
I can only consider that this is a purposeful attack on the American people and government credibility from the top. And if so, how could someone be so influenced to follow it through? Is it just a personal hatred of Americans justifying harm to them?
[1] https://hsph.harvard.edu/news/air-pollution-linked-with-incr...
The timeline he set for himself was artificial. His assertion that it was for sure caused by environmental factors and his department could find it in a few months was artificial.
His team clearly used AI (without reasoning features and without ensemble challenges) to write public documents, leaving the hallucinated research footnotes in the document.
He clearly doesn’t care about accuracy precision or truth, so he very well may announce some cause in September. I’m sure his _Children’s Defense Fund_ has their own “research” which draws conclusions that he will most likely crib from.
https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42776504
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45008733