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RFK Jr. said the government may have planned COVID (www.thebulwark.com)

submitted 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) by MicroWave@lemmy.world to c/politics@lemmy.world

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Summary

Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Trump’s HHS nominee, expressed belief in the “plandemic” conspiracy, suggesting the COVID pandemic was planned by the government.

He also compared COVID efforts to Nazi experiments and accused the government of using bioterrorism to implement social controls.

Kennedy’s statements raise concerns about his understanding of infectious diseases and his potential impact on pandemic response.

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[-] 2030TimeTraveler@sh.itjust.works 129 points 6 days ago

RFK say what?

The government?

Like the one that your boss was in charge of at the time, that government?

The government that you plan to become a part of?

🤔

🪱🍽🧠

[-] pearsaltchocolatebar@discuss.online 20 points 6 days ago

No, it was obviously Hillary. Or maybe Obama.

[-] jas0n@lemmy.world 9 points 6 days ago

George Soros with Hunter's laptop

[-] 2030TimeTraveler@sh.itjust.works 4 points 6 days ago

Hillary from the parallel universe where she won the electoral college, sent the virus in order to begin an interdimentional space-time war and invade our universe and rewrite our history with a time-traveling delorean!

DEEP STATE LIBS #EXPOSED and #OWNED

Lol why does every consipiracy theory feel like some amateur fiction writer?

[-] Infinite@lemmy.zip 1 points 5 days ago

You should check out the show Counterpart. You're like 60% of the way to the plot.

[-] 2030TimeTraveler@sh.itjust.works 1 points 5 days ago

Lol I watched like the first few episodes and it was fucking boring af, I had to stop watching.

[-] the_blast_of_us@lemm.ee 1 points 6 days ago

This is a really shitty version of "Clue"

[-] Cort@lemmy.world 2 points 5 days ago

Ooo ooo my turn! I'm gonna guess: Buffalo shaman, in the speaker's office, with the gavel.

[-] barnaclebutt@lemmy.world 55 points 6 days ago

So, Trump's government? Between the brain worm and heroin abuse, I'm not so sure this guy is thinking correctly.

[-] Sam_Bass@lemmy.world 8 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago)

Another one of those crackpot liars in a position to accelerate the death this nation

[-] Mouselemming@sh.itjust.works 27 points 6 days ago

Keep in mind, every accusation is either a confession or a plan or both.

[-] officermike@lemmy.world 34 points 6 days ago

Trump's first administration may not have planned it, but sure as hell wanted to let it ravage large metropolitan population centers for political gain.

[-] Hideakikarate@sh.itjust.works 15 points 6 days ago

Ironic considering it hurt die-hard red voters more.

[-] Drusas@fedia.io 8 points 6 days ago

But not initially.

[-] randon31415@lemmy.world 28 points 6 days ago

No, we had a plan TO DEAL WITH COVID. Your boss threw it in the trash and millions died.

[-] paddirn@lemmy.world 26 points 6 days ago

Possibly, we should start by investigating the President who was in charge at the time.

[-] AmidFuror@fedia.io 19 points 6 days ago

I agree. Between this and 9/11, Obama has a lot of explaining to do.

[-] islands@lemmy.cafe 9 points 6 days ago

Do you remember when Obama was asleep at the wheel (as usual) and the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor? How this guy managed to get reelected always mystifies me.

[-] Cort@lemmy.world 2 points 5 days ago

And he did nothing to stop the Redcoats from burning down the Whitehouse back in the day

[-] IHeartBadCode@fedia.io 24 points 6 days ago

Remember everyone. This guy is going to be Dr. Oz's boss.

[-] GiddyGap@lemm.ee 4 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago)

Great to have all the conspiracy thiorists back in power. Awesome job, America!

[-] Deello@lemm.ee 15 points 6 days ago

We are about to find out what happens when conspiracy theorists get into the federal government. Will he get arrested for leaking government secrets?

[-] kreskin@lemmy.world 1 points 4 days ago

Thats the brain worm talking.

[-] leaky_shower_thought@feddit.nl 1 points 6 days ago

Looks like RFK is more of a Nazi expert than a health expert... waiiiit...

[-] Mk23simp@lemmy.blahaj.zone 108 points 1 week ago

Crazy how the people who believe the government planned the pandemic are also on the side of the guy who ran the government at the time.

[-] Rhaedas@fedia.io 37 points 6 days ago

No, no, it was the Deep State government, not Trump. And that might be controlled by the Deep Deep State. It's deep all the way down.

[-] TransplantedSconie@lemm.ee 11 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago)

Oh, the Mariana Trench State? That shit is ^deep.

[-] grue@lemmy.world 0 points 6 days ago

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VVZzt2ogv5Q

[-] Drusas@fedia.io 51 points 1 week ago

How the fuck did the US government plan to enslave its own citizens by releasing a novel virus in the middle of China?

[+] themeatbridge@lemmy.world -44 points 1 week ago* (last edited 6 days ago)

There's strong evidence it was in the USA well before the first cases were reported in China.

That's not to say that anything RFK says makes any damn sense. But it's also not clear that it started in China.

For people asking for evidence, check the statistics for respiratory-related illnesses and pneumonia in late 2019.

https://nchsdata.cdc.gov/DQS/#nchs-home_by-primary-diagnosis/diseases-of-the-respiratory-system/age-group/all-time-periods/1

There was an unexplained spike in respiratory illness across all age groups, and a spike in pneumonia deaths starting in September. Google also tracked a spike in searches related to pneumonia. We didn't even have COVID tests until January of 2020, which is when the first diagnoses started coming in. None of the deaths in 2019 attributed to pneumonia were tested for COVID.

That doesn't mean it was definitely COVID, but it is enough to make me doubt the Trump narrative that China started it.

You'll also notice the incidence of scented candle complaints began in the latter quarter of 2019.

https://www.reviewpartydotcom.com/blog/reviews-as-data-points-yankee-candle-covid-cases

[-] Drusas@fedia.io 46 points 6 days ago

No, there isn't. Anyone who was paying attention to news out of China saw that illnesses started being reported there in November 2019. By late December, it was obvious that something was going on.

There has been zero evidence that the same was true in the States.

Don't spread misinformation.

[-] Asidonhopo@lemmy.world -3 points 6 days ago

The earliest tests done on residual samples from the Red Cross date back to December 13th and they show a small but significant positive caseload at that time. To my knowledge no other testing was done on earlier samples so in theory it could have been present before that in the US.

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC7799215/

[-] Asidonhopo@lemmy.world -5 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago)

Even with researchers testing samples that were taken before Covid was known about, the earliest US cases seem to be mid-December.

https://scholar.google.com/scholar_lookup?title=Serologic%20testing%20of%20U.S.%20blood%20donations%20to%20identify%20SARS-CoV-2-reactive%20antibodies%3A%20December%202019-January%202020&author=SV%20Basavaraju&author=ME%20Patton&author=K%20Grimm&publication_year=2020&journal=Clin%20Infect%20Dis&volume=72

[-] NaibofTabr@infosec.pub 29 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago)

There's strong evidence it was in the USA well before the first cases were reported in China.

In fact there is strong evidence against this conclusion. Here is a graph showing reported instances for China and the rest of the world (ROW) starting in January 2020:

In which you can see that Global Cases match China Cases until the end of February 2020.

And here is a graph showing cases in Hubei province, the rest of China, and the rest of the world starting in January 2020:

And here is an animated map showing confirmed cased starting January 2020.

source

It is very, very clear that the COVID-19 pandemic started in China, specifically in Hubei province, and that anyone who says otherwise is a liar.

[+] themeatbridge@lemmy.world -15 points 6 days ago

What you've got there is a graph of testing. The slopes are all the same, because that's when each country received tests, and that's how quickly they ramped up testing. Covid 19 wasn't even sequenced until 40 people were extremely ill from the virus. We know now that it is spread through the air, and carriers of the virus can be contagious without being symptomatic. Zero countries were wasting precious tests on deceased people who died in the previous weeks.

China made for a convenient target for xenophobes and racists to blame. It spread quickly through dense populations, and their government was using (ineffective) draconian methods to contain the spread. Westerners spread the image of indigent communists eating bats and civets, ignoring the growing number of anomalous respiratory illnesses at home.

Maybe it started in China. Maybe it didn't. We cannot know for sure, because we deliberately did not collect the data. And anyone trying to convince you differently has an agenda.

[-] FlowVoid@lemmy.world 14 points 6 days ago

The slopes are all the same

No, they aren't. Because it's a semilog graph.

[-] NaibofTabr@infosec.pub 12 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago)

If you have some contradictory evidence from a reliable source to present to substantiate your claims, please present it now. If not, then your

Maybe it started in China. Maybe it didn't.

is a super weak and transparent attempt to spread doubt of the actual research. Your claims, made without evidence, can be dismissed without evidence.

Westerners spread the image of indigent communists eating bats and civets, ignoring the growing number of anomalous respiratory illnesses at home.

We can tell the difference between SARS-CoV-2 and other sources of viral respiratory illness because we can test that shit, so again your attempt to spread doubt is super weak and transparent. There is research, there is data, there is corroboration from multiple sources. You haven't presented any sources.

Science works. Denialism is stupid. Nobody with any brain cells is buying your garbage. Go home.

[-] ManixT@lemmy.world 10 points 6 days ago

The only agenda we're seeing here is you pushing misinformation

[-] djsoren19@yiffit.net 5 points 5 days ago

The problem is that China absolutely lied, obfuscated data, and generally did whatever it took to make it look like their COVID response was better than reality.

It is very, very, very likely that the COVID-19 virus originated in China, and it is also quite likely that Americans were infected with coronavirus before January 2020. Both of these things can be true without needing to resort to conspiracy.

[-] Rhaedas@fedia.io 14 points 6 days ago

Strong evidence.

[-] Deceptichum@quokk.au 9 points 6 days ago

Tankie and MAGA views align on this stance.

[-] floofloof@lemmy.ca 8 points 6 days ago

Can you give a citation for this strong evidence?

[-] masterofn001@lemmy.ca 13 points 6 days ago

Trust me, bro, my sino-ruskie special sources beamed them directly to the remaining parts of my brain.

[-] Rhaedas@fedia.io 1 points 6 days ago

The Trump narrative was that China purposefully started it. Not that it was the origin. That is the "narrative" of the science. That you claimed "strong evidence" and then cite something you say may not definitely mean COVID but seems suspicious...that's not very strong. That's literal "trust me, I feel it's true".

[-] AbouBenAdhem@lemmy.world 27 points 1 week ago* (last edited 6 days ago)

Kennedy’s statements also raise the remarkable specter that the man who could soon lead the Department of Health and Human Services believes that the department may have carried out a “sinister” scheme to “enslave” its own citizens—and that this scheme was implemented under the leadership of Donald Trump, the very person who has now chosen Kennedy for the HHS post.

I guess the only problem Kennedy had with the claim is that he wasn’t in on it.

[-] Sludgehammer@lemmy.world 9 points 6 days ago

That's true about most of the conspiracy crowd. If you look at their ramblings there's a thick streak of envy running through them. They don't want to stop the shadowy individuals they believe run the world, they're angry that they're not one of them.

[-] MagicShel@lemmy.zip 8 points 6 days ago

Shit, I'm angry I wasn't chosen for Hogwarts or the Jedi Academy. That doesn't make any of this bullshit real.

[-] SnotFlickerman@lemmy.blahaj.zone 6 points 1 week ago

Strap in, it's gonna be a bumpy ride.

this post was submitted on 20 Nov 2024

188 points (98.5% liked)

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