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.
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.
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.
Or needing to find more space to bury bodies in New York City.
This is what a half million lives looks like from a clinical perspective. More than 2,900 coworkers dying for just doing their job.
Or, a nurse holding the hand of a dying COVID19 patient in the ICU while on zoom with their family.
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.
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
Thank you for everything you do. On top of your already demanding job, you clearly put in a lot of time to provide all of your followers with new data and analysis every single day. We appreciate it!!