The United States is going to reach 100,000 deaths from the coronavirus by Memorial Day Monday, despite the fact that infections have slowed down. Meanwhile, as numerous states are moving to loosen the restrictions on social distancing, the New York Times decided to jolt people’s memories, in case they’ve grown too complacent. Its front page shows no photographs, news articles, or ads. Under the headline “U.S. DEATHS NEAR 100,000, AN INCALCULABLE LOSS,” the front page includes the names of 1,000 dead victims of the coronavirus.
NYT’s assistant graphics desk editor Simone Landon said she and her team had seen “both among ourselves and perhaps in the general public, there’s a little bit of fatigue with the data.” And so, as the death toll from the virus in the United States has reached 98,683 on Saturday, Landon was looking to represent the numbers in a way that “conveyed both the vastness and the variety of lives lost,” according to John Grippe, who presented the project ahead of time in the Saturday edition.
