General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsThe cover of The Lancet, and their article on RFK Jr.
Last edited Fri Feb 27, 2026, 01:01 PM - Edit history (2)
Every senator who voted to confirm RFK Jr owns this tragedy. Every single one.
— Jon Cooper (@joncooper-us.bsky.social) 2026-02-27T14:51:35.805Z
https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(26)00414-9/fulltext
Editing to add that because DU's software won't include the proper link above as a link, instead breaking it at the parenthesis, you'll have to copy the complete link into an address bar or search engine.
Editing again after finding out you can also use this link -
https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736%2826%2900414-9/fulltext - which substitutes %28 for ( and %29 for ) as explained in replies 22 and 23 below.
Editorial Volume 407, Issue 10531, P825, February 28, 2026
Robert F Kennedy Jr: 1 year of failure
In his first speech as Secretary of the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), Robert F Kennedy Jr laid out a plan to restore trust. The COVID-19 pandemic saw public faith in Federal health and science plummetbetween April, 2020, and September, 2023, the percentage of polling respondents who trusted coronavirus and vaccine information from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) a great deal or a fair amount, fell from 83% to 63%and the HHS employees to whom he was speaking were facing devastating mass lay-offs and funding cuts. Although Kennedy did not mince words about the likely fate of staff resistant to his ambitions, he promised open and honest engagement with everyone willing to work towards making the USA healthy again. To the Senate committee who confirmed his nomination, Kennedy promised a receptive and collaborative relationship, and to the public from whom he claims his mandate, he promised a new era of unbiased science without hidden conflicts of interest, secrecy, or profiteering. Radical transparency, gold-standard science, ethics, compassion, competency, and pride would restore to HHS the unimpeachable authority that the USA needs and deserves. Politicians are known to break promises, but Kennedy's record, 1 year in, has been a failure by most measures, especially his own.
10 days after his speech about trust and openness, HHS rescinded a 54-year-old policy of soliciting public comments for new rules and regulations, silencing the voices of many of the stakeholders he pledged to serve. Kennedy has summarily dismissed advisers and experts, communicated policy changes on pay-walled media, fired a whistleblower, and overseen the revisions of guidelines and recommendations, contradicting decades of established science, often to the benefit of industries he formerly condemned. Under Kennedy's leadership, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) shuttered programmes studying the health effects of air pollution, HHS withheld a report linking alcohol consumption to cancer, and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) withdrew warnings of potential harm from consuming products (such as raw milk and chlorine dioxide) falsely marketed as treatments for autism. His changes at CDC have driven 26 states to reject official guidance on vaccine policy, and in December the CDC awarded an unsolicited $1·6 million grant to conduct a vaccine study in Guinea-Bissau that raised so many ethical concernsthe design would have risked exposing thousands of unvaccinated children to hepatitis Bthat it has been compared to the infamous Untreated Syphilis Study at Tuskegee.
HHS under Kennedy has made a habit of throwing good money after bad science. Amid the Trump administration's cuts to research funding and personnel there has been a harmful shift in priorities. Cutting-edge discoveries and clinical investigationson subjects ranging from mRNA vaccines to diabetes and dementiaare denied crucial resources while junk science and fringe beliefs are elevated without justifiable explanation. Under Kennedy's leadership, politicisation at the NIH, FDA, and CDC is imperilling the future of US science and innovation and throttling the public health enterprise that keeps the country safe today.
The mechanisms maintained by the Federal Government to monitor and report health concerns such as drug overdoses, maternal mortality, and food security have been as beleaguered as the doctors and scientists who rely on them; thousands of datasets are no longer publicly available, leaving Americansand the worldunprepared to respond to future crises. And crises are looming: in November, 2025, the first human infection (and death) from the H5N5 strain of avian flu was recorded in Washington state; pertussis, which killed 13 people in the USA in 2025, continues to spread across the country; and the measles outbreak that began in January of last year now threatens the elimination status of the USA and Mexico.
-snip-
More at the link.
SheltieLover
(79,313 posts)BlueWaveNeverEnd
(13,755 posts)Easterncedar
(5,974 posts)Evil manifested. Can you imagine what his father would suffer, seeing this?
LetMyPeopleVote
(178,031 posts)
kimbutgar
(27,100 posts)erronis
(23,407 posts)They knew that rfkjr was an unstable addicted narcissist - just like trump - so they hired him and probably keep him well stocked on some designer drugs.
kimbutgar
(27,100 posts)Solly Mack
(96,758 posts)Goonch
(4,627 posts)
highplainsdem
(61,297 posts)is something that MAGA loves, even from official government accounts. They're fine with AI companies stealing intellectual property, and the AI companies have aligned with and flattered Trump.
Generative AI is based on deliberate and continuing theft, and it creates lots of problems that liberals traditionally fight.
The Trump regime wants people to use genAI more and more. Including to answer health questions.
Goonch
(4,627 posts)lf my art bothers you then you can always add me to your Ignore List. Otherwise, please stop stalking me.
Response to Goonch (Reply #34)
highplainsdem This message was self-deleted by its author.
highplainsdem
(61,297 posts)will respond to it.
If you post AI slop anywhere on DU, one of the many DUers who dislike AI slop might respond to it, because it IS unethical and it makes DU look bad.
Goonch
(4,627 posts)You know how I feel about my art, but nothing about artistic process or, perhaps, art in general or freedom of artistic expression. However, you do seem to know about veiled threats and bullying.
Let's just agree to disagree and go our separate ways.
highplainsdem
(61,297 posts)how little control the user has over what's generated, and I've read of AI users rejecting hundreds or even thousands of images they don't like before finally getting one they do like enough to call their own.
I would have had to be kidding myself, when I tried those image generators, to call what the AI spat out from.stolen IP my own work.
Goonch
(4,627 posts)Tools have a learning curve and be dangerous, especially if used improperly.
A poor workman blames his tools.
You always need to have the last word.
highplainsdem
(61,297 posts)generators just how little control over what's generated the AI user has.
One striking comment I found was from an AI user who actually sells some AI art.
This was posted in the Adobe Community forum:
https://community.adobe.com/questions-38/too-many-rejected-ai-generated-images-lately-327849?postid=5992190#post5992190
Emphasis added.
The most relevant words there are "of course" - and no one there expressed shock because they knew how many extra images were generated, each request for more using more electricity and water to cool data centers.
DUers probably don't realize that almost every piece of AI-generated art they see anywhere has a long, unseen trail of rejected images behind it, and even the best often needs a lot of correcting, because the AI user has so little control.
Here's a detailed article that goes into those problems with lack of control:
https://www.nngroup.com/articles/ai-imagegen-stages/
-snip-
This technique involves repeating the same prompt to exhaust the possibilities related to one creative direction. Due to the inherent randomness of the AI image-generation algorithm, this practice resulted in many variations of the same concept, allowing people to choose what they liked best.
-snip-
One study participant wanted to create an image of a steampunk-themed sofa. After multiple iterations, she got an image of a sofa she was happy with but wanted to change the upholstery from plain to striped. This edit proved difficult, as the appearance of the sofa would change every time she tried to make an adjustment, due to the randomness of the AI tool.
Changing small details of an AI-generated image can be an arduous, time-consuming task. Participants often experience frustration due to the lack of user control (usability heuristic #3) inherent to current AI image-generation tools. Unlike traditional image-processing software, these tools offer limited support for fine adjustments, which means users end up fighting against the AI to achieve desired outcomes. Consequently, users frequently end up dissatisfied as the final images often fall short of perfection.
Again, emphasis added.
Real artists don't have that lack of control. AI users do.
Goonch
(4,627 posts)are in the well thought out, well written, highly detailed phrasing of your original instructions Garbage in garbage out.
So long, and thanks for all the fish ;-{)
Doodley
(11,830 posts)Goonch
(4,627 posts)KS Toronado
(23,582 posts)Believe the message a cartoon is attempting to convey is more important than how good or
poorly the artwork looks.
Goonch
(4,627 posts)Goonch
(4,627 posts)
Qutzupalotl
(15,772 posts)Sadly, they cook the planet, and are growing exponentially.
Goonch
(4,627 posts)
Qutzupalotl
(15,772 posts)highplainsdem
(61,297 posts)have the AI vomit out dozens or even hundreds of images to get one that isn't too flawed to post. Those AI tools can generate a batch - typically 4 - of images in under 10 seconds. The free tier of Google's Gemini, the AI those images are from, allows, iirc, 100 images or maybe batches of images a day. The cheap $20/mo tier allows 1,000 images or batches a day. Each image wasting some water and electricity.
That slop is why they need data centers. It costs AI companies but gets people hooked on AI so they'll eventually pay more and more for it. And playing with AI and being told they're somehow creative having AI do something for them turns them into advocates for AI who will overlook intellectual property having been stolen to train the AI.
highplainsdem
(61,297 posts)highplainsdem
(61,297 posts)intellectual property.
Using them doesn't show any real creativity/skill/talent, and in fact they dumb users down and keep people from developing any real skill.
And people have to make a conscious or subconscious decision that they don't give a damn about all the people who work was stolen, to use those tools voluntarily.
Which makes using them anti-art, anti-creativity, and ultimately anti-human.
SheltieLover
(79,313 posts)But this cartoon makes him look way too good imo, especially his face. He looks all happy and friendly here, but irl his usual facial expression is sour, scornful, and enbittered. Like he thinks has 1000% smarter than everybody else and and is mad at the world for not recognizing that.
Wednesdays
(22,234 posts)Response to Wednesdays (Reply #47)
jfz9580m This message was self-deleted by its author.
MayReasonRule
(4,083 posts)I see no reason to deride others over such endeavors utilizing vision aids, hearing aids, physical aids or creative aids.🥹
We each seek to overcome our human foibles by employing tools of our own choosing.
We each seek to communicate in a manner easily understood, each in our own way.
Happy Saturday to ya!

Initech
(108,355 posts)Worst HHS director in American history. Fuck him.
NNadir
(37,746 posts)...because there have been some absymal cases, with the highest concentration of absymal cabinet members ever in this current capacious set. They cannot be called an administration so much as vandalizing looters.
Initech
(108,355 posts)And each one is more horrifying than the next. They exist to do two things - destroy whatever department they're in charge of, and kiss his worthless, disgusting ass on Fox News nightly. Fox News got their dream president and administration - and we're all paying the price for it.
Fox News has done more damage to the United States than Al'Qaeda or the Taliban could ever dream of.
NNadir
(37,746 posts)...in the original Wizard of Oz spoken by tge cowardly lion, "Ain't it the truth! Ain't it the truth!"
erronis
(23,407 posts)Initech
(108,355 posts)Nothing is spared from these sick fucks.
highplainsdem
(61,297 posts)Mysterian
(6,308 posts)This clusterfuck of an administration is a bunch of fucking morons.
Kristi fucking Noem in charge of DHS.
Jesus Fucking Christ.
Layzeebeaver
(2,260 posts)Just sayin
NNadir
(37,746 posts)Last edited Fri Feb 27, 2026, 01:06 PM - Edit history (1)
...that one knows more than scientists.
You could not do worse than brain worm Bob.
He's the worst kind of moron, an arrogant moron, the class into which his boss fits.
AZ8theist
(7,218 posts)...oh, fuck it. They ALL SUCK.
Not one intelligent , redeeming person in the lot. But then again, just look at their boss. Nuf said.
MLWR
(962 posts)which had been appropriated for those purposes and either put it in his own off-shore accounts or use it to fund his thugs in ICE or his invasions of sovereign nations to deflect from the EPSTEIN FILES.
erronis
(23,407 posts)highplainsdem
(61,297 posts)incorporate the section starting with a parenthesis as part of the link. You have to copy the link into an address bar or search engine.
And I just edited the OP to make that clear.
The same thing happens if, for instance, someone posts a YouTube video with a time stamp to start playing the video at a particular time. The time stamp part of the link won't work on DU, so you have to explain which point in the video you mean, even if the link includes it.
hunter
(40,567 posts)I don't think it's peculiar to my operating system or browser.
highplainsdem
(61,297 posts)hunter
(40,567 posts)highplainsdem
(61,297 posts)CBHagman
(17,476 posts)Promises do not mean a thing from this administration, but Kennedy in particular cannot be trusted in a conversation, let alone on testimony and on policy.
eggplant
(4,167 posts)You can substitute %28 for ( and %29 for ).
highplainsdem
(61,297 posts)Dave Bowman
(7,017 posts)highplainsdem
(61,297 posts)fictional and harmless. But these loons are real and a threat not just to the US but often to other countries as well.
I saw Bobby Kennedy give a speech in 1968, and I'd arrived so late I was still outside the building and was able to shake his hand as he went past.
He would have been so ashamed of RFK Jr.
Dave Bowman
(7,017 posts)maxsolomon
(38,525 posts)NIH was always going to be wrecked by MFer, in retaliation for Fauci.
AZJonnie
(3,447 posts)THE. BILLIONAIRES. WANT. TO. KILL. US.
Couldn't be more obvious
highplainsdem
(61,297 posts)And I agree that the billionaires - the ones causing so much trouble, anyway - want to kill us.
Those villains don't think they need very many of us, and they sure as hell don't want to share any of the wealth they expropriated from the less wealthy.
AZJonnie
(3,447 posts)Also HTML encoding is also how you can get the emoji I put in the subject line, and many others
https://www.w3schools.com/html/html_emojis.asp
On DU this encoding only survives one save though, if you try to edit your post, or even preview it, it will break.
TexasBushwhacker
(21,164 posts)And they will be disproportionately elderly, non-white and/or female. Meanwhile, Dr. Oz says our GDP would go up if more senior citizens worked another year before retiring or more young people delayed going to college and just worked at a shitty job for a year or two.
dalton99a
(93,365 posts)3catwoman3
(29,137 posts)Does he think that staff pediatric offices just walk into an exam room and inject a child without so much as a by-your-leave?
We have extensive discussions with parents. Information sheets are given and reviewed. Questions are answered. Informed consent/permission forms are signed by parents. Every time.
Wounded Bear
(64,102 posts)orangecrush
(29,735 posts)Appointing this oaf was an act of war against the American people.
Doodley
(11,830 posts)spanone
(141,306 posts)bmichaelh
(1,131 posts)We will see if the senators who regretted voted for RFK Jr will do the right thing in regard to his surgeon general's pick.
She and her brother are allies of RFK Jr.
Voting for her is a vote for RFK Jr.
Trump has nominated someone that is not even a practicing physician.
Reminds me of the line from Shakespeare's Macbeth that describes an upside-down world.
May also describe the Trump administration.
Fair is foul and foul is fair.
Jarqui
(10,888 posts)The world is upside down
Skittles
(170,667 posts)highplainsdem
(61,297 posts)would like to cut.
Skittles
(170,667 posts)that can kill CHILDREN
fucking with CANCER research - that affects ALL AGES
highplainsdem
(61,297 posts)Skittles
(170,667 posts)highplainsdem
(61,297 posts)Skittles
(170,667 posts)they behave like most "Christians" I know
highplainsdem
(61,297 posts)OMGWTF
(5,061 posts)What could possibly go wrong in this Kakistocracy of psychopaths?