Half a million deaths...

The grim toll of COVID-19

As an epidemiologist, it’s really easy (too easy) to lose sight of the people behind data. Maybe it’s a protective mechanism. My “day job” is violence epidemiology, so a dataset of 100,000 child abuse cases can be a lot to process. Even a “small database”, like 1,000 gang-related deaths, is a lot. But, it’s important to humanize the numbers. Each one of these data points has a story, a life, a contribution to society. If anything, this drives motivation, at least for me, to keep soldiering on.

The first U.S. fatality from the pandemic was assumed to be in Seattle on Feb 28, 2020. After understanding the science a bit more, our first documented death is now Feb 6, 2020 in California. Twelve months later, we reached 500,000 deaths.

To some, 500,000 doesn’t sound like that much. After a year, we are tired, jaded, and have normalized COVID. This number has even been minimized. 500,000 deaths in 12 months from a virus that popped up 14 months ago is unfathomable.

But, I didn’t want this milestone to pass without somehow materializing the numbers. This is my attempt to honor half a million lives lost to COVID19.

1. This is what a half million lives looks like from an epidemiological perspective. An epi curve of daily deaths since March 2020. Each gray line representing a pooled number of deaths each day for each region of the U.S.

The Washington Post pulled together another graph, which shows how quickly deaths ramped up in the US over time.

2. This is what a half million lives looks like from a community perspective. This was the NYT’s front page on May 24, 2020. They named 1,000 people who died from COVID19 and listed their corresponding age, location, and a short descriptive sentence.

Some of those included was:

• Bobby, 84, Buckley, Washington, Seahawks season-ticket holder

• Antonio, 73, Chicago, always seemed to be busy with some home project

• Louvenia, 44, Tonawanda, NY, proud single mother of three

• Mike, 59, Valley Stream, NY, first responder during the 9/11 attacks

• JoAnn, 87, Charleston, SC, loved to travel and covered much of the globe

• Maria, 52, Nevada, would walk her children to school every morning

But, for today’s milestone, we have to line up 500 of these front pages. It would look something like this:

Another community perspective is overflowing morgues in El Paso.

REUTERS/Ivan Pierre Aguirre

An El Paso County Sheriff's Officer tries to block photographs from being taken as bodies are moved to refrigerated trailers, deployed during a surge of coronavirus deaths, outside the County of El Paso Medical Examiner's Office in El Paso, Texas, U.S. November 16, 2020.  REUTERS/Ivan Pierre Aguirre

Or needing to find more space to bury bodies in New York City.

Bodies are buried on New York's Hart Island in New York City, April 9, 2020. REUTERS/Lucas Jackson

3. This is what a half million lives looks like from a clinical perspective. More than 2,900 coworkers dying for just doing their job.

Kaiser Health News

Health workers react during a tribute for their co-worker Esteban, a nurse who died of the coronavirus, outside the Severo Ochoa Hospital. April 13, 2020. REUTERS/Susana Vera

Medical workers in protective suits rest after hours of treating patients suffering from the coronavirus in an intensive care unit. October 29, 2020. REUTERS/Carlos Jasso

Or, a nurse holding the hand of a dying COVID19 patient in the ICU while on zoom with their family.

Novant: RN Cassie Brault holds the hand of a dying COVID-19 patient at Novant in the Medical Surgical Intensive Care Unit.

3. And, this is what a half million lives looks like from a personal perspective. Zoom funerals. Loved ones being robbed of the grieving process and closure.

Zoom funeral I attended for our dear friend.

Gina Claudio, the widow of Miguel Martinez Ortiz, holds the flag that draped the casket of her late husband, the first Puerto Rican police officer to die of the coronavirus, following his funeral ceremony. REUTERS/Ricardo Arduengo

So, please take a moment to reflect these 500,000 souls. There’s a story behind each data point. I hope this sobering milestone can (continue to) motivate us to keep fighting the good fight.

Love, YLE