Thread by @EvanBlake17

By tonight, the official #COVID19 death toll in the US will surpass 1 million, according to @Worldometers. Estimates of excess deaths caused directly or indirectly by the pandemic place the true US #COVID death toll at over 1.2 million. #CovidIsNotOver 1/
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The societal impacts of the pandemic are unprecedented in US history. Entire families have been wiped out. 1 out of every 100 people over 65 years old has been killed by #COVID19. Over 200,000 children have lost a parent or primary caregiver to the disease. 2/

In just 2 years, more Americans have died from #COVID than the total death toll of every war fought by the US in the 20th century. On average, 2,735 Americans have died from COVID every 2 days over the past 2 years, close to the total of 2,977 people killed on September 11. 3/

In the first year of the pandemic alone, life expectancy in the US dropped by an astounding 1.8 years, the largest decrease since World War II. At this point, the cumulative total decline in life expectancy is likely approaching five years. 4/ wsws.org/en/articles/20…

Lost among the statistics of mass deaths are countless individual tragedies. Parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, sons, daughters, the elderly, people in the prime of their lives, youth who had hardly even begun to live, have all been struck down by COVID-19. 5/

In response to this monumental social catastrophe and the approaching milestone of 1 million deaths, everywhere there is a massive official indifference. 6/

One would imagine that a series of solemn memorials, tributes, and serious discussions on the pandemic would be held by the media and politicians in the days and weeks leading up to this milestone. Nothing of the sort. 7/

The pandemic is now all but ignored by the political establishment and the corporate media, as a potential new surge of the more infectious, vaccine-resistant and virulent #Omicron #BA2 subvariant looms in the background and all federal pandemic funding has totally dried up. 8/

While the 1 million needless deaths are the most tragic element of the pandemic, possibly tens of millions more Americans now suffer from #LongCovid. This can affect nearly every organ in the body, including the lungs, brain, heart, kidneys and more. 9/ nature.com/articles/s4159…

Further, there is a growing body of evidence proving that those infected with #COVID19 face increased risk of brain damage, heart disease, kidney disease, diabetes, and more. The overall long-term societal impact is incalculable. 10/ thelancet.com/journals/landi…

The majority of COVID-19 infections & deaths have befallen the working class & lower middle class, the bottom 90% of income earners who have been compelled to return to unsafe workplaces and send their children into unsafe schools. 11/

For the capitalists, the pandemic has been a bonanza. Sunday will mark 2 years since the CARES Act was passed, initiating the greatest transfer of wealth in US history, with US billionaires amassing a staggering $2.1 trillion through October 2021. 12/ wsws.org/en/articles/20…

Tesla CEO Elon Musk, who violated California state law and forced his employees back to work in May 2020, went unpunished by state Democrats and has amassed over $200 billion in the past two years. 13/ wsws.org/en/articles/20…

Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, who has overseen mass COVID-19 infections and numerous deaths at his workplaces, has garnered $75 billion since March 2020. 14/ wsws.org/en/articles/20…

Under both the Trump and Biden administrations, as well as Republican and Democratic state and local governments, public health has been continuously subordinated to the economic, social and political interests of the corporations and financial oligarchy. 15/

The pretense of Biden and the Democrats that they would “follow the science” and maintain efforts to stop the pandemic was exploded during the surge of the Omicron variant, as they embraced the “herd immunity” strategy pioneered by Trump. 16/ wsws.org/en/articles/20…

The same process unfolded in Canada, across Europe and internationally, with almost every world government outside of China abandoning all public health measures to slow the spread of the virus. 17/

The official global death toll now stands at ~6.1 million, while excess deaths are estimated to be ~20.2 million. This will only intensify in the coming weeks and months as the Omicron BA.2 subvariant spreads uncontrolled and as new variants evolve. 18/
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More so than any other event, the pandemic has made clear that the capitalist ruling elites are willing to accept any level of death in the population. The Biden administration is not concerned with how lives can be saved from COVID-19. Quite the opposite. 19/

Biden has flown off to Europe to partake in war councils with the other NATO powers and stoke up the conflict with Russia over Ukraine. Rather than call on the world to unify in the fight against COVID-19, Biden aims to unify NATO to oppose Russia. 20/ wsws.org/en/articles/20…

Were the US-NATO imperialist powers to engage in a direct confrontation with Russia, this could quickly spiral out of control and unleash a nuclear war that could permanently destroy human civilization. 21/ wsws.org/en/articles/20…

The acceptance of mass death from #COVID indicates that a psychological barrier has been crossed in ruling circles regarding nuclear war. If they are willing to sacrifice the lives of 1 million Americans, what qualms do they have about the deaths of millions abroad? 22/

The pandemic policies of the past 2 years amount to a series of social crimes. The Global Workers’ Inquest into the COVID-19 Pandemic, initiated by the WSWS, is uncovering the impacts of the pandemic and identifying all those responsible. 23/ wsws.org/covidinquest

The Inquest will provide the working class with a political understanding of the pandemic, while arming workers with the science of the #ZeroCovid strategy that must be pursued worldwide to stop the pandemic and save millions of lives. 24/ wsws.org/endcovid

The intersecting crises of capitalism, above all the pandemic and the growing danger of #WorldWarIII, can only be resolved through the building of a mass movement of the international working class aimed at the socialist reconstruction of society. 25/25 wsws.org/join