Thread by @DavidNorthWSWS

The @nytimes is memorializing one million US #COVID19 deaths with a feature that combines excellent graphics with dishonest and cynical commentary. An opening section headline reads: "At the start of the pandemic, few understood how high the death toll might climb." False! 1/

Epidemiologists had been warning for years of the potentially devastating consequences of a pandemic. As early as January 2020, there was sufficient information available to know that the spread of #SARSCoV2 would exact a terrible human toll. 2/

On Jan 25, 2020, when only 2 cases had been reported in the US, the WSWS warned "that there are no coordinated global mechanisms in place to cope with a health crisis that could easily spiral out of the control of authorities, placing the lives of countless people in danger." 3/

Responding to claims that #COVID19 was a threat to "only" third world countries, the WSWS wrote on Jan 31, 2020 that poverty and a for-profit health system made the US highly vulnerable to a disastrous spread of the virus. 4/

We wrote, "Tens of millions of people live in extreme poverty and lack any health insurance... If several thousand patients sought treatment at the same time for severe respiratory illnesses in a major American city, it would completely overwhelm the medical system." 5/

Claiming to explain "How America Lost One Million People," the NY Times conceals the economic interests responsible for the massive US death toll. It writes: "Experts say deaths were all but inevitable from a new virus of such severity and transmissibility." False! 6/

In fact, at least 90-95% of the deaths in the US could have been avoided if the appropriate public health measures had been implemented to stop viral transmission. China's #ZeroCovid policies have kept their death toll well below 10,000. 7/

The NY Times, which regularly demands that China abandon ZeroCovid, fails to acknowledge that it played a central role in opposing public health measures, such as lock-downs and school closures, because they harmed the economy. 8/

Denouncing lockdowns, columnist Thomas Friedman wrote on March 22, 2020: “Wait a minute! What the hell are we doing to ourselves? To our economy? To our next generation? Is this cure — even for a short while — worse than the disease?’’ 9/

The devastating impact of the virus in the United States and globally is the consequence of the brutal subordination life and health to the capitalist drive for profits and the accumulation of massive personal wealth. 10/

In the final analysis, the fight against COVID-19 is a fight against the capitalist system. #CovidIsNotOver #MarkedByCOVID 11/11 wsws.org/endcovid