If you still don’t believe Covid-19 exists, read this!

File: Doctors treating coronavirus patients

Treatment of Coronavirus victims. Credit, The Straits Times

New York Times front page, 24 May, 2020. Photo credit: The Guardian, UK

With all the efforts the Federal and State governments are putting in place to conquer covid-19 that has laid siege to the world, it is disheartening that many Nigerians still argue that the pandemic does not exist! That was why Governor Nasir El-Rufai of Kaduna State said recently that anyone doubting the existence of Coronavirus “should come to Sir Kashim Ibrahim House (Govt House) and let’s take him to the hospital wards where the victims of the virus are presently kept to spend two days, if he feels it in his body, he will know the story to tell.”

See that El-Rufai story here

Nowadays, you hear many Nigerians who would argue that coronavirus is a ruse, meant by officials to collect money from governments and international donor agencies. Worse still, many who are less critical said the figures being released by state governments are to attract funds from the centre the way the level of insecurity at the constituent units determines how big the security votes would be.

If you are still in doubt, read what New York Times published today, 24 May on its front page. The newspaper, as reported by The Guardian Weekly, wrote that it is “a decision the paper said was intended to convey the vastness and variety of the tragedy, the front page is a simple list of names and personal details taken from obituaries around the US.”

The US death toll, according to the story, “stands at more than 97,000, according to the Johns Hopkins University tracker, by far the highest in the world, and the Times said it had been considering how to mark expected milestone of 100,000 deaths.”

The story, according to New York Times, is entitled,

‘Incalculable loss’: New York Times covers front page with 1,000 Covid-19 notices

As the US approaches the grim milestone of 100,000 coronavirus deaths, the New York Times has filled the entire front page of Sunday’s paper with the death notices of victims from across the country.

In a decision the paper said was intended to convey the vastness and variety of the tragedy, the front page is a simple list of names and personal details taken from obituaries around the US.

The headline is “US deaths near 100,000, an incalculable loss”, with a sub-heading that reads: “They were not simply names on a list. They were us.”

The entire list, which continues inside, numbers nearly 1,000 names – a fraction of the total loss of life in the US during the outbreak so far.

The US death toll stands at more than 97,000, according to the Johns Hopkins University tracker, by far the highest in the world, and the Times said it had been considering how to mark expected milestone of 100,000 deaths.

In an article for Times Insider, assistant graphics editor Simone Landon explained the treatment was a way of personalising the tragedy as readers and staff developed data fatigue from the constant reporting of the pandemic.

Landon led a team of researchers in searching obituaries in hundreds of US newspapers that listed Covid-19 as the cause of death and extracting names and key personal details “that depicted the uniqueness of each life lost”, such as: “Alan Lund, 81, Washington, conductor with ‘the most amazing ear”.

Tom Bodkin, its chief creative officer, said the all-text treatment referenced early newspaper designs, but that he could not remember another front page without an image in his 40 years at the paper. “This is certainly a first in modern times,” Bodkin said.

The Times tweeted an image of the front page on Saturday afternoon and within hours had 61,000 retweets and more than 116,00 likes.

Monday in the US is Memorial Day, the traditional start of the American summer, and some experts fear that the return of warmer weather combined with a loosening of lockdowns around the country could trigger a deadly second wave of the coronavirus.

-Read the full story from The Guardian Weekly