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'Incalculable loss': New York Times covers front
page with 1,000 Covid-19 death notices
As US Covid-19 death toll nears 100,000, Times
presents a tribute to some of the Americans to fall victim to the disease
New York
Times front page of 24 May 2020
The New
York Times has paid tribute to nearly 1,000 of the Americans who have died from
the coronavirus.
Guardian
staff
Published
onSun 24 May 2020 02.59 BST
As the US
approaches the grim milestone of 100,000 coronavirus deaths, the New York Times
has filled the entire front page of Sunday’s paper with the death notices of
victims from across the country.
In a
decision the paper said was intended to convey the vastness and variety of the
tragedy, the front page is a simple list of names and personal details taken
from obituaries around the US.
The
headline is “US deaths near 100,000, an incalculable loss”, with a sub-heading
that reads: “They were not simply names on a list. They were us.”
this is
part of a project headed by @simonelandon and directed for print by
@standardregular. cover by tom bodkin. 1000 obituaries pulled from the nearly
100,000 obituaries of americans dead from the coronavirus.
pic.twitter.com/jNIeugcatG
— Josh
Crutchmer (@jcrutchmer) May 23, 2020
The entire
list, which continues inside, numbers nearly 1,000 names – a fraction of the
total loss of life in the US during the outbreak so far.
The US
death toll stands at more than 97,000, according to the Johns Hopkins
University tracker, by far the highest in the world, and the Times said it had
been considering how to mark expected milestone of 100,000 deaths.
In an
article for Times Insider, assistant graphics editor Simone Landon explained
the treatment was a way of personalising the tragedy as readers and staff
developed data fatigue from the constant reporting of the pandemic.
Landon led
a team of researchers in searching obituaries in hundreds of US newspapers that
listed Covid-19 as the cause of death and extracting names and key personal
details “that depicted the uniqueness of each life lost”, such as: “Alan Lund,
81, Washington, conductor with ‘the most amazing ear”.
Tom Bodkin,
its chief creative officer, said the all-text treatment referenced early
newspaper designs, but that he could not remember another front page without an
image in his 40 years at the paper. “This is certainly a first in modern
times,” Bodkin said.
The Times
tweeted an image of the front page on Saturday afternoon and within hours had
61,000 retweets and more than 116,00 likes.
Monday in
the US is Memorial Day, the traditional start of the American summer, and some
experts fear that the return of warmer weather combined with a loosening of
lockdowns around the country could trigger a deadly second wave of the
coronavirus.
On Friday,
White House coronavirus taskforce member Dr Anthony Fauci said new localised
outbreaks were “inevitable” as mitigation measures were relaxed. He said a
full-blown second wave could be avoided if the holy grail of containment
measures – testing, quarantine and contact tracing – continued to be adhered
to.
Fauci said
he was hopeful that the US would be ready, though a recent study by Harvard
University found that only nine states were conducting, or near to conducting,
the minimum recommended testing. Hours after Fauci spoke, Donald Trump ignored
health guidance and ordered houses of worship to open for in-person services at
the weekend.
Americans defy Covid-19 social distancing rules
to celebrate Memorial Day holiday
Hundreds gather at pool party at Lake of the Ozarks
and at Daytona Beach in Florida, defying safety restrictions
Alison
Rourke and agencies
Mon 25 May
2020 13.00 BSTFirst published on Mon 25 May 2020 03.09 BST
Americans
across the country appeared to abandon social distancing guidelines as they
sunbathed on beaches and gathered for pool parties on Memorial Day weekend.
The long
weekend traditionally signals the start of the US summer, and despite the
country’s Covid-19 death toll approaching 100,000, many revellers dismissed any
safety concerns to celebrate.
At the Lake
of the Ozarks, made famous by the television series with the same name,
hundreds gathered for a pool party to enjoy the warm spring weather. Bar tables
installed in the pool were filled with drinks, as people danced and apparently
forgot that Covid-19 existed.
One tweet
showing video of the event, said there were “no covid concerns”, to which
another replied: “There will be in 14 days from now”.
Missouri,
where the Ozarks are located, has had 686 deaths from Covid-19, according to
the Johns Hopkins University tracker. The website of Governor Michael Parson
encourages the state’s residents to maintain social distancing and practice
good hygiene.
A pool
party may be the source of an outbreak in another state, Arkansas. The state’s
governor, Asa Hutchinson, said this weekend that residents faced a “second
peak” of cases and some of those could be linked back to a high school party.
“A high
school swim party that I’m sure everybody thought was harmless,” Hutchinson
said. “They’re young, they’re swimming, they’re just having activity, and
positive cases resulted from that.”
Police were
called in Daytona Beach, Florida, after hundreds of people gathered on the
boardwalk for a party, despite social distancing restrictions. CBS reported
that officers attempted to disperse crowds.
“We got
slammed. Disney is closed, Universal is closed. Everything is closed, so where
did everybody come with the first warm day with 50% opening? Everybody came to
the beach,” Volusia County Sheriff Mike Chitwood said at a Sunday news
conference.
US
president Donald Trump came under fire for playing golf over the weekend,
eschewing a mask, and shaking hands on a green. Public health experts have said
that golf is an acceptable activity but that players should still be cautious
when playing.
White House
coronavirus taskforce member, Dr Deborah Birx recommended on Friday that
golfers not touch flags on greens and added: “remember that that is your space,
and that’s a space that you need to protect and ensure that you social distance
for others.”
All 50 US
states have relaxed coronavirus restrictions to some degree. In some states,
like Illinois and New York, restaurants are still closed to in-person dining
and hair salons remain shuttered. In many southern states, most businesses are
open, with restrictions on capacity.
Last week,
11 states reported a record number of new Covid-19 cases, including Alabama,
Arkansas, Minnesota, North Dakota, New Hampshire, Maryland, Maine, Nevada,
Utah, Virginia and Wisconsin. It is not clear if the cases are rising from more
testing or a second wave of infections. Total US cases have passed 1.64
million, the highest in the world by a factor of four, with Brazil second on
more than 363,000 cases.
A plea by
health officials and many US state governors to wear masks in stores and in
public is being met with protest and resistance from some Americans. Social
media was filled with videos of businesses turning away a few angry customers
who refuse to cover their mouths and noses.
“We need to
be wearing masks in public when we cannot social distance. It’s really
critically important we have the scientific evidence of how important
mask-wearing is to prevent those droplets from reaching others,” said Birx on
Sunday.
Associated
Press contributed to this report
* This
article has been amended to correct the name of the Missouri governor
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