AP teams on separate continents would not be denied access to record, behind the scenes, the stark reality wrought by the coronavirus pandemic.
“No.”
“Never.”
“Not possible.”
“Can't be done.”
Barcelona-based photographer Felipe Dana and video journalist Renata Brito were told in no uncertain terms that Spanish hospitals and their intensive care units in particular would not allow access to journalists reporting on the coronavirus pandemic. And in New York, photographer John Minchillo and video journalist Robert Bumsted were given largely the same answer when they tried to get into a funeral home to document the terrible surge of victims literally piling up.
Health care workers assist a COVID-19 patient at a library that was turned into an intensive care unit at Germans Trias i Pujol hospital in Badalona, Barcelona province, Spain, April 1, 2020.
AP Photo / Felipe Dana
A health care worker gestures as she assists COVID-19 patients at a library that was turned into an intensive care unit at Germans Trias i Pujol hospital in Badalona, Barcelona province, Spain, April 1, 2020.
AP Photo / Felipe Dana
Health care workers assist a COVID-19 patient at one of the intensive care units of the Germans Trias i Pujol hospital in Badalona, Barcelona province, Spain, Wednesday, April 1, 2020.
AP Photo / Felipe Dana
Health care workers assist COVID-19 patients at one of the intensive care units of the Germans Trias i Pujol hospital in Badalona, Barcelona province, Spain, April 1, 2020.
AP Photo / Felipe Dana
Health care workers gather during meeting to discuss COVID-19 procedures at Germans Trias i Pujol hospital in Badalona, Barcelona province, Spain, April 1, 2020.
AP Photo / Felipe Dana
Health care workers assist COVID-19 patients in a library that was turned into an intensive care unit at Germans Trias i Pujol hospital in Badalona, Barcelona province, Spain, April 1, 2020.
AP Photo / Felipe Dana
A COVID-19 patient undergoes treatment in one of the intensive care units of the Germans Trias i Pujol hospital in Badalona, Barcelona province, Spain, April 1, 2020.
AP Photo / Felipe Dana
A technician prepares samples to be tested for COVID-19 at the microbiology lab of the Germans Trias i Pujol hospital in Badalona, Barcelona province, Spain, April 1, 2020
AP Photo / Felipe Dana
Health care workers assist a COVID-19 patient at one of the intensive care units of the Germans Trias i Pujol hospital in Badalona, Barcelona province, Spain, April 1, 2020.
AP Photo / Felipe Dana
The city of Badalona is seen through a window of the Germans Trias i Pujol hospital in Barcelona province, Spain, April 1, 2020.
AP Photo / Felipe Dana
A health care worker prepares medication for a COVID-19 patient at one of the intensive care units of the Germans Trias i Pujol hospital in Badalona, Barcelona province, Spain, April 1, 2020.
AP Photo / Felipe Dana
A COVID-19 patient undergoes treatment in one of the intensive care units (ICU) of the Germans Trias i Pujol hospital in Badalona, Barcelona province, Spain, April 1, 2020.
AP Photo / Felipe Dana
Neither team took no for an answer. The images and text they produced, along with the reporting of New York’s Jake Seiner, delivered some of the most haunting coverage of the pandemic. Hospital ICUs and morgues are places visual journalists rarely get to see, but that is changing as front-line workers realize that their stories must be told so that the world can understand the magnitude of the crisis.
In Spain, one of the hardest-hit countries, Dana and Brito sent formal requests to hospitals, and went door-to-door asking for access at others. Doctors were sympathetic but needed formal authorization from administrators. While the two waited, they organized protective gear that would be a prerequisite should permission come through. When it did, from a hospital in Badalona where the facility’s library had been turned into a makeshift ICU, doctors originally insisted on still photos only. But Brito came anyway, and talked her way in. Both were aware of the patient privacy laws in Spanish hospitals and took great care to shoot patients in a way that they were not identifiable. The pair’s photos and video convey respect and compassion for both the critical care patients and the exhausted doctors working in close proximity.
Renata Brito, left, and Felipe Dana in the ICU in Badalona, Spain, April 1, 2020.
AP PHOTOS / Dana, left; BRITO
Pat Marmo, owner of Daniel J. Schaefer Funeral Home in the Brooklyn borough of New York, is interviewed in his body holding facility, April 2, 2020. The company is equipped to handle 40-60 cases at a time, but at the time of the interview it was handling 185, most victims of the coronavirus pandemic. Like many funeral homes in New York and around the globe, Marmo's business was in crisis: “This is a state of emergency,” he said. “We need help.”
AP Photo / John Minchillo
Employees deliver a body to the Daniel J. Schaefer Funeral Home in the Brooklyn borough of New York, April 2, 2020.
AP Photo / John Minchillo
Bodies are wrapped in protective plastic in a holding facility at Daniel J. Schaefer Funeral Home in the Brooklyn borough of New York, April 2, 2020.
AP Photo / John Minchillo
Employee Gina Hansen enters her office to retrieve documentation for a client at the Daniel J. Schaefer Funeral Home in the Brooklyn borough of New York, April 2, 2020.
AP Photo / John Minchillo
Folders containing information on those who died from COVID-19 are stacked with the records of other clients at the Daniel J. Schaefer Funeral Home in the Brooklyn borough of New York, April 2, 2020.
AP Photo / John Minchillo
Pat Marmo, center, owner of Daniel J. Schaefer Funeral Home in the Brooklyn borough of New York, takes a phone call in his office while handling the overflow of clients stemming from COVID-19 deaths, April 2, 2020.
AP Photo / John Minchillo
Pat Marmo, owner of Daniel J. Schaefer Funeral Home in the Brooklyn borough of New York, walks through a viewing room set up for social distancing, April 2, 2020.
AP Photo / John Minchillo
Pat Marmo, owner of Daniel J. Schaefer Funeral Home, speaks on two phones at once in his office in the Brooklyn borough of New York while handling the overflow of clients stemming from COVID-19 deaths, April 2, 2020.
AP Photo / John Minchillo
Pat Marmo, owner of Daniel J. Schaefer Funeral Home in the Brooklyn borough of New York, speaks with a client in his office while handling the surge stemming from COVID-19 deaths, April 2, 2020. Marmo apologizes to families at the start of every conversation for being unusually terse, and begging them to insist hospitals hold their dead loved ones as long as possible.
AP Photo / John Minchillo
Pat Marmo, owner of Daniel J. Schaefer Funeral Home in the Brooklyn borough of New York, walks through his body holding facility, April 2, 2020. The company was operating at about three times its capacity during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Pat Marmo, owner of Daniel J. Schaefer Funeral Home in the Brooklyn borough of New York, walks through his body holding facility, April 2, 2020. The company was operating at about three times its capacity during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Pat Marmo, owner of Daniel J. Schaefer Funeral Home in the Brooklyn borough of New York, walks through his body holding facility, struggling to handle the overflow of clients stemming from COVID-19 deaths, April 2, 2020.
AP Photo / John Minchillo
An employee prepares a surface for cleaning bodies according to religious practice at Daniel J. Schaefer Funeral Home in the Brooklyn borough of New York, April 2, 2020.
AP Photo / John Minchillo
Employee Gina Hansen wears protective gloves due to COVID-19 concerns at the Daniel J. Schaefer Funeral Home in the Brooklyn borough of New York, April 2, 2020. The funeral home is handling a surge of clients due to pandemic deaths.
AP Photo / John Minchillo
Pat Marmo, owner of Daniel J. Schaefer Funeral Home in the Brooklyn borough of New York, walks through his body holding facility, struggling to handle the overflow of clients stemming from COVID-19 deaths, April 2, 2020. “Every person there, they’re not a body,” he said. “They’re a father, they’re a mother, they’re a grandmother. They’re not bodies. They’re people.”
AP Photo / John Minchillo
In New York, Minchillo and Bumsted spent days chasing down leads and following the story of bodies being sent to makeshift morgues and trailers. They tried for access at several funeral homes, but were abruptly declined. Then Minchillo heard of a funeral home in Brooklyn that might be willing. He headed over, texting Bumsted and Seiner on the way. What they found was heartbreaking. Dozens of bodies covered in sheets literally piled together in a room. The morgue, designed to handle 40-60 dead at a time, was overwhelmed by three times that count. The funeral parlor director explained that he “wanted his story told” because the world had to see the wave that was hitting.
Senior managers reviewed the strong images and video before the story moved to ensure that they were newsworthy and met AP standards. Play was off the charts for both stories, with NPR and Time using the funeral home piece; Bumsted’s video has more than 32,000 views on YouTube. Brito’s video edits of the Spanish ICU aired an extraordinary 2,000 times, including major European broadcasters France 24, Euronews and Deutsche Welle, while two of Dana’s heavily played photos were featured in the The Guardian’s “20 photographs of the week.”
The tenacity, skill and bravery on display from both teams was the difference between getting the story out to the world – or not. It’s the latest example of AP journalists proving that “No. Never. Not Possible,” does not apply to them. And it is why Dana, Brito, Minchillo, Bumsted and Seiner share AP’s Best of the Week award.
For AP’s complete coverage of the coronavirus:
– Comprehensive all-formats coverage of the virus outbreak.
– Understanding the Outbreak: stories explaining the new coronavirus.
– One Good Thing: daily stories of hope and humanity amid the crisis.
– Ground Game: Inside the Outbreak: AP’s podcast series.