500,000 COVID deaths – 4 ways to visualize an almost unimaginable toll

By Roger Straw, February 22, 2021

First, the chilling illustration on New York Times’ front page from yesterday, where each dot represents a death, starting at the top with a single death on February 29, 2020  (Click on the image to enlarge.)  …and be sure to also see the Washington Post story, below.

nytimes.com/2021/02/21/insider/covid-500k-front-page.html

The Washington Post Graphics Department posted 3 ways of imagining 500,000 of us – a caravan of 9,804 buses full of people, 50 on each bus; names listed on a memorial wall like that of Vietnam War dead, only 87 feet tall; and a filled-to-capacity new cemetery the size of Arlington Cemetery.  (This story cannot be shared visually on the BenIndy, but you can view it free at the WaPo. Click here or on the image below.)  Thanks to Washington Post graphics staffers Artur Galocha and Bonnie Berkowitz.

500,000 dead, a number almost too large to grasp

Here are three ways to visualize the monstrous death toll of the coronavirus in this country

washingtonpost.com/nation/interactive/2021/500000-covid-deaths-visualized/