Thread by @whstancil

Guys, there is something wrong with David Leonhardt. For reference, the currently death average is 2,200 a day.

Here’s David Leonhardt in February, saying COVID is in retreat.

Here’s David Leonhardt in April, complaining about people’s “irrational COVID fears.”

Here’s David Leonhardt in May, saying COVID is in retreat.

Here’s David Leonhardt in October, saying COVID is in retreat.

Here’s David Leonhardt in November, calling for a return to normalcy.

Despite the supposedly imminent onset of normalcy and retreat of COVID, the current COVID death rate is significantly higher than it was in February, April, May, October, or November.

Not to state the obvious, but David Leonhardt WANTS things to be normal. He is ANNOYED they are not normal and he is ANNOYED at the people who keep pointing it out. But they are right and he is very, very wrong, and has been wrong over and over.

Millions of people receive Leonhardt’s newsletter. He has been one of the biggest single sources of incorrect COVID information (some might call it disinformation!) in the US. The fact he finds experts to support his narrative, or uses charts and data, doesn’t change that.

And despite his optimistic predictions being wrong over and over, Leonhardt still has the gall - more times than I can count! - to accuse people who are more pessimistic about COVID than him of somehow being psychologically fixated on the pandemic.

At some point this outrageous behavior isn’t just his problem. It’s his employer’s, too. If I was as professionally wrong as often as Leonhardt has been - about the single most salient issue facing the country, no less - my job position would be reconsidered. Shouldn’t his?

And just to add to this thread, here's Leonhardt again. Once again, his reasoning his clear: he personally wants COVID to be over, and is working backwards to a moral argument where it's okay to not worry about the 2200 people a day virus is still killing.