how does canceling a meeting to pick a flu strain for development of a flu vaccine help them to acquire money?

If a bunch of old people on Social Security die several years early due to influenza... Yay! They saved money and extended Social Security! Or can raid it for other things...

It seems like the bigger win financially would be back room deals with pharmaceutical companies selling the next vaccine.

Saving money on social security because more unhealthy people died doesn't directly make anyone in charge any more rich. Unless I missed something you can't short Social Security liabilities.

It reduces life expectancies, which reduces social security obligation.

musks been getting more federal contracts during all this, so it's probably just cutting any spending he can to free up money for him

It’s a collusion to create chaos and dismantle the system that can track what they are doing. You think “flu vaccine”, they steal elsewhere. Today a vaccine, last week an email to justify jobs, earlier USAID, next week something else. It’s a distraction.

Its interesting to see so many conspiracy theories pop up on a more left-leaning site.

The last 6-8 years has largely seen democrats deriding republicans (or MAGA specifically) for sharing unproven claims of a deep state, pedophile rings, etc. Now we're seeing a growing list of conspiracy theories related to what and why the Trump administration is up to.

The theories may even be right in the end, that does happen. They're just currently based on speculation and presumed intent.

I’m not from the US. I’m just an outside spectator.

Sorry I should have been more clear there.

I didn't actually mean to imply that I was calling you out as a conspiracy theorist here. I replied here because it seemed to fit well with the comment thread, but was more trying to comment on the general ethos I've seen here in the US and how many conspiracy theories now seem to be talked about in the media from the other side of the aisle as it were (Democratic leaning media instead of Republican leaning).

It's not exactly a conspiracy when they're literally outright saying this is what they're doing. Like Elon Musk is out there regurgitating every single stupid reason you can think of for dismantling the government, you can spend like an hour trawling his feed and realize that all of these conspiracies are just things he's outright admitting.

> It’s a collusion to create chaos and dismantle the system that can track what they are doing. You think “flu vaccine”, they steal elsewhere. Today a vaccine, last week an email to justify jobs, earlier USAID, next week something else. It’s a distraction.

This is the comment I was replying to. I at least haven't seen any direct acknowledgements if this being the goal, and the comment or even refers to it as collusion with predictions of what comes next. That seems squarely in the conspiracy theory realm to me, in line with all the theories thrown around while Biden was in office or Hillary was running.

> The real opposition is the media. And the way to deal with them is to flood the zone with shit.”

Steve bannon, part of the first trump presidency

Sure, I saw that interview clip and raised it elsewhere on HN. That still doesn't move this from conspiracy to confirmed plan as described in the earlier comment.

There's nothing wrong with a conspiracy theory. They're just often backed by anecdotal or circumstantial evidence and aren't yet really proven. This still falls into that bucket.

Interestingly enough, plenty of conspiracy theories turn out to be at least partially true, the same could happen here.

I've had the same thought. I've literally watched the conspiracy theorists change among my friends. Strange times.

Depends who was in the meeting.

Don't have to pay for flu vaccines for medicare/medicaid, because they are "unsafe"