Direct Left

Share this post
NY Times Pandemic Propagandist Has 5 Million Readers, Including POTUS
www.directleft.com

NY Times Pandemic Propagandist Has 5 Million Readers, Including POTUS

COVID-19 minimizer David Leonhardt has millions of readers and influences White House policy. His newsletter puts the most vulnerable at risk.

Peter Daou
Jan 28
Comment
Share

Public health reporter Joanne Kenen writes about David Leonhardt, author of "The Morning" newsletter for The New York Times, whose fans include Joe Biden.

Twitter avatar for @JoanneKenenJoanne Kenen @JoanneKenen
The Nightly reads The Morning: We'd been seeing and hearing a lot of criticism about @DLeonhardt 's take on the pandemic from public health folks and physicians treating covid patients.
The NYT’s polarizing pandemic punditpolitico.com

January 28th 2022

19 Retweets36 Likes

Kenen explains that Leonhardt is under fire for spreading COVID-19 misinformation:

Notable doctors and scientists have written to the Times, individually or in groups, to poke holes in Leonhardt’s coverage of the pandemic. They say that he cherry-picks sources and data, giving too much weight to people who may have medical expertise but not on infectious disease; that he argues strenuously for open schools but downplays the Covid risks for kids as well as their role in spreading the virus; that he held out Britain’s vaccination strategy as a model (right before the U.K. itself reversed course); that he underestimates how many Americans — not all over age 65 — are at elevated risk or live with people at elevated risk.

Leonhardt’s influence on White House policy is disturbing:

Twitter avatar for @KristeKlineKriste Kline😷🗳 @KristeKline
Dandy. @WhiteHouse is running on Covid advice from Bain guy, Jeffery Zients & for extra "fuck kids, poor, disabled, immunocompromised, elderly, disenfranchised ppl energy, they've got @davidleonhardt. Explains a LOT. Privilege is ugly.

Will Stancil @whstancil

Oh great, love to read that Joe Biden, who has access to every epidemiologist and public health official on the planet, is getting COVID information from David Leonhardt, and his officials agree with Leonhardt that people are taking COVID too seriously. https://t.co/oD8XZXoI5X

January 28th 2022

Leonhardt recently took to Twitter to make the bizarre claim that “millions of Democrats have decided that organizing their lives around Covid is core to their identity as progressives.”

Twitter avatar for @DLeonhardtDavid Leonhardt @DLeonhardt
... and millions of Democrats have decided that organizing their lives around Covid is core to their identity as progressives, even as pandemic isolation is fueling mental-health problems, drug overdoses, violent crime, rising blood pressure and growing educational inequality.

January 25th 2022

36 Retweets265 Likes

Dr. Cecilia Tomori, Director of Global Public Health and Community Health at Johns Hopkins, takes Leonhardt to task:

It's amazing that someone who has consistently minimized the impacts of COVID and has expressed little concern for those dying or suffering, or becoming disabled from COVID continues to have the opportunity to claim authority about this topic. To argue that we should just get on with life because boosted individuals (like himself) face relatively low personal risk of death from the virus misses so much. The entire framing is wrong. Infectious diseases are inherently about social interaction. And people do not exist as islands - they live in families, communities and interact with others. These interactions involve vaccinated (1, 2, or 3 doses) and unvaccinated people.

I’ve written at length about the duopoly’s unconscionable strategy of downplaying COVID-19 in order to keep the capitalist machine humming:

Both pandemic presidents have prioritized corporate interests above human lives, placing profit over public safety — with predictable results: “The top 1% gained over $6.5 trillion in corporate equities and mutual fund wealth during the pandemic.” Falsely claiming Omicron is mild has led to one of the most egregious and reckless public policies in recent memory: forcing workers and children into the flames of a raging virus that has unknown long-term effects. No words can capture the callousness of current U.S. government policy, which amounts to “let them work and go to school, get sick, contract long COVID, and in some cases, die.”

Minimizing COVID-19, as Leonhardt and the White House have done, harms populations that are more vulnerable to the virus, including millions who are disabled or immunocompromised. As NPR phrases it, “There's one population that gets overlooked by an 'everyone will get COVID' mentality.”

Twitter avatar for @realLandsEndprotocol; Host Body ⚕︎☭ @realLandsEnd
To David Leonhardt the cost of protecting the immunocompromised is too high. How does he convince you of this fact? With his hysterical portrayal of a soaring simultaneous rise in violent crime, blood pressure, drug overdoses brought on by non-existent restrictions and NPIs.
screenshot of transcript of Daily podcast featuring David Leonhardt: David Leonhardt, highlighted text reads: "As we’ve said, it’s usually mild, but it can be rough on elderly or immunocompromised people. So the question becomes, if Covid is starting to look like a regular respiratory virus, is it rational for us to treat it like something completely different and to disrupt our lives in all these big and consequential ways?" -- full text is available at: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/26/podcasts/the-daily/omicron-coronavirus-behaviors.html?showTranscript=1

January 30th 2022

11 Retweets24 Likes
Twitter avatar for @Imani_BarbarinImani Barbarin, MAGC | Crutches&Spice ♿️ @Imani_Barbarin
Don’t think it’s lost on me that Biden ran utilizing his disability and engaging with the disabled community (which saw a 20% increase in voters) only for his administration to throw up their hands in regards to COVID knowing we are the most vulnerable.

December 31st 2021

1,124 Retweets5,549 Likes
Twitter avatar for @SFdirewolfAlice Wong 王美華 @SFdirewolf
Maybe…just maybe the conversation about #omicron, vaccination, and the pandemic overall should center those who are disproportionately impacted. But that would require an acknowledgment of systemic inequities, eh? #CripTheVote #HighRiskCOVID19 #omicron

Michael Barbaro @mikiebarb

Lots of listeners to our ep with @DLeonhardt said their anxiety about COVID was not personal health, but infecting others and their community. David addresses this here ---- > https://t.co/YYvo8hH4Gn

January 28th 2022

7 Retweets37 Likes
Twitter avatar for @maya_sakaiMaya @maya_sakai
Powerful and beautifully written piece. Perfectly conveys how I feel about being immune-compromised in this pandemic, the eugenic narratives built into these discussions, ableist ignorance, and the necessary practice of interdependence…
Image

Mia Mingus @miamingus

New writing. https://t.co/g1q86qtnB3

January 27th 2022

2 Likes

Downplaying the pandemic also ignores the debilitating effects of long COVID on all groups. In the New Republic, Melody Schreiber writes:

Not everyone is worried about their personal demise. They may instead be worried about spreading the virus to elderly or immune-compromised people or to children who aren’t eligible or allowed to get vaccinated, or they may be concerned about overwhelming hospitals, developing a “mild” course of Covid that nevertheless leads to long-term illness or disability, missing work while sick, losing childcare after they or their kids test positive, or falling behind in school. The choice isn’t a binary between being afraid for one’s own personal safety or carrying on. Mass death isn’t inevitable; being concerned about the vulnerable or the course of the pandemic as whole isn’t pathological.

While liberals attack podcast host Joe Rogan for spreading virus misinformation, they ignore offenders with even larger platforms: the ruling parties and “legitimate” media figures like David Leonhardt. Thankfully, many people see through the propaganda:

Twitter avatar for @LongCovidNYCLongCovidNYC @LongCovidNYC
Why is @nytimes letting David Leonhardt regularly write influential columns about #Covid19 when he has ZERO public health, medical, or scientific background and continues to write pieces that are vastly misinformed and put peoples lives in danger?

January 28th 2022

13 Retweets37 Likes
Twitter avatar for @aepton(((Abraham Epton))) @aepton
I wish I could subscribe to the @nytimes again, just to cancel it again, over and over and over, to bathe in the cleansing fire. This shit is so fucking stupid. I will never forget how profoundly the @nytimes has failed, the last few years.

David Leonhardt @DLeonhardt

... and millions of Democrats have decided that organizing their lives around Covid is core to their identity as progressives, even as pandemic isolation is fueling mental-health problems, drug overdoses, violent crime, rising blood pressure and growing educational inequality.

January 25th 2022

2 Likes
Twitter avatar for @RMCarpianoRichard M. Carpiano, PhD, MPH @RMCarpiano
Public health for the privileged... To think I and so many others in the public health field could have skipped years of study and just followed the teachings of David Leonhardt, who, during COVID, has been essentially Nate Silver Lite.

Will Stancil @whstancil

Oh great, love to read that Joe Biden, who has access to every epidemiologist and public health official on the planet, is getting COVID information from David Leonhardt, and his officials agree with Leonhardt that people are taking COVID too seriously. https://t.co/oD8XZXoI5X

January 28th 2022

2 Likes
Twitter avatar for @amillerphdAaron Miller @amillerphd
The Leonhardt Retreat Signal has consistently appeared two months ahead of the next wave. I am now concerned about late March 2022.
Image

January 30th 2022

20 Retweets61 Likes

Updated 1/30/22

CommentComment
ShareShare

Create your profile

0 subscriptions will be displayed on your profile (edit)

Skip for now

Only paid subscribers can comment on this post

Already a paid subscriber? Sign in

Check your email

For your security, we need to re-authenticate you.

Click the link we sent to , or click here to sign in.

TopNewCommunity

No posts

Ready for more?

© 2022 Peter Daou
Privacy ∙ Terms ∙ Collection notice
Publish on Substack Get the app
Substack is the home for great writing