David Zweig (journalist)

David Zweig is an American journalist and author. He has written extensively on topics relating to COVID-19.^[1][2] He wrote the tenth installment of the Twitter Files focusing on Twitter and COVID-19.^[3][4][5] He has written for The Atlantic, New York Magazine's Intelligencer, The Free Press, The New York Times,^[6] and Wired.

Career

Early Career

David Zweig released two albums in the early 2000s, All Now With Wings and Keep Going,^[7] which were produced by Keith Cleversley.^[8]

Novels

Zweig is the author of three books. His novel "Swimming Inside the Sun" was notable for exploring the concept of depersonalization. He describes this perspective as follows: "Fiction Depersonalization Syndrome, a hypothesis that I have developed, posits that immersion in the Western world’s highly mediated environment ...leads to increased self-consciousness; the extreme endpoint of this phenomenon is depersonalization, a psychological disorder where one is literally watching oneself from afar, as if in a movie or a dream."^[9]

Journalism

Zweig is best known for his articles regarding the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States, authoring a series of investigative pieces challenging contemporary responses to the pandemic, particularly school closures, and the enforcement of various interventions, including mask mandates in schools^[10] and the evidence supporting such mandates.^[11] His articles "The Science of Masking Kids in School Remains Uncertain,"^[12] and "The CDC's Flawed Case for Wearing Masks in School"^[13] proved to be influential works for critics of mask mandates in schools.^[14] Zweig was present at the Great Barrington Declaration.^[15]

He testified as an expert witness before the United States House of Representatives Early Childhood, Elementary, and Secondary Education Subcommittee Hearing “Back to School: Highlighting Best Practices For Safely Reopening School” on Wednesday, September 29, 2021,^[16] and at the House Oversight and Accountability Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic meeting on March 28, 2023.^[17]

Bibliography

• Invisibles: The Power of Anonymous Work in an Age of Relentless Self-Promotion (2015)^{[18][19][20][21][22]}
• Swimming Inside the Sun (Second Guess Media, 2009)
• An Abundance of Caution: American Schools, the Virus, and a Story of Bad Decisions (MIT Press, 2025) ^[23][24]