AP looks back on 600,000 U.S. lives lost with deep analysis and reporting on the outbreak’s strikingly uneven and ever-shifting toll on the nation’s racial and ethnic groups.
The 600,000th COVID-19 death in the U.S. presented a big challenge: How to bring fresh perspective to yet another milestone, just months after we crossed the 400,000 and 500,000 marks.
The trio of Seattle-based medical writer Carla K. Johnson, Los Angeles-based data journalist Angel Kastanis and San Francisco reporter Olga Rodriguez met the challenge and then some, delivering an Only-on-AP data analysis that showed how the virus has exploited racial inequalities as it cut a swath through the country.
Kastanis analyzed death and demographic data of all 600,000 deaths to show the uneven toll during the various phases of the pandemic: First Black Americans were hit hard, then Latinos, then Latinos and white citizens, and now the Black community is again affected disproportionately. The data also showed that the virus is exacting a vicious toll on younger Latinos, with 37% of Hispanic deaths under the age of 65, compared with 12% for white people.
Rodriguez reported on a Latino family representing the trends that became the story’s lead: The family’s 32-year-old father, Jerry Ramos, an essential worker in California, died during the winter surge. Freelance photographer Nic Coury made poignant photos of the family.
Family members of Jerry Ramos become emotional while looking at a photo of him at the family’s home in Watsonville, Calif., June 6, 2021. Ramos died Feb. 15 at age 32, becoming one of the roughly 600,000 Americans who have perished in the outbreak and an example of the disproportionate toll on the younger Latino community.
AP Photo / Nic Coury
Oriana Hernandez, left, and Mercedes Ramos tear up at the family’s home in Watsonville, Calif., June 6, 2021, while talking about Jerry Ramos, Hernandez’s boyfriend and the son of Mercedes Ramos, who died of COVID-19 on Feb. 15 at age 32.
AP Photo / Nic Coury
At Mount Olivet Cemetery in New Orleans, April 22, 2020, pallbearers who were among only 10 mourners allowed present accompany the casket of Larry Hammond, who died from the coronavirus. As the U.S. reached the grim milestone of 600,000 COVID-19 deaths, an AP data analysis revealed how the virus has exploited racial and ethnic inequalities in the U.S.
AP Photo / Gerald Herbert
The family of Larry Hammond waves to friends and family driving past their home because pandemic restrictions limited attendance at his funeral to just 10 people.
AP Photo / Gerald Herbert
The Rev. Fabian Arias performs an in-home service, May 9, 2020, beside the remains of Raul Luis Lopez who died in April 2020 from COVID-19, in the Corona neighborhood of the Queens borough of New York.
AP Photo / John Minchillo
Mourners carry the remains of loved ones from St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York, July 11, 2020, following the blessing of the ashes of Mexican people who died from COVID-19. The ashes were blessed before they were repatriated to Mexico.
AP Photo / Eduardo Munoz Alvarez
The remains of loved ones are organized in a van at St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York, July 11, 2020, in New York, following the blessing of the ashes of Mexican people who died of COVID-19. The ashes were blessed before they were repatriated to Mexico.
AP Photo / Eduardo Munoz Alvarez
Mortician Cordarial O. Holloway, foreground left, funeral director Robert L. Albritten, foreground right, and funeral attendants place a casket into a hearse in Dawson, Ga., April 18, 2020. As COVID-19 has impacted various racial and ethnic groups in the U.S., the Black community has been among the hardest hit.
AP Photo / Brynn Anderson
Johnson served as the lead writer on the package and rounded out the story with medical analysis, perspective and reporting, including a Black medical researcher in Baltimore who talked about her own experiences with the virus. Top stories newsperson Pete Brown edited the piece and Kastanis worked with top stories senior creative lead Phil Holm on informational graphics. Holm also teamed up with health and science data journalist Nicky Forster on an engaging interactive map of the U.S. showing the virus advancing geographically to the 600,000 mark.
The package resonated with readers and customers, with the story making the front pages of newspapers in Portland, St. Louis, the Chicago Tribune, Orlando and elsewhere. The Los Angeles Times ran the piece and it was among the top stories on AP News, where the majority of pageviews came from Facebook interactions.
For a shining example of AP collaboration across teams, using sharp data analysis and on-the-ground reporting to reveal the pandemic’s impact on communities of color, the team of Johnson, Kastanis and Rodriguez receives this week’s Best of the States award.
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