In late December last year, I shared a list of news stories and projects that I considered the 20 best COVID-19 data stories of 2020. The list ranged from early STAT News coverage of the novel coronavirus, to a FiveThirtyEight investigation of testing access, to THE CITY’s online memorial of New Yorkers who lost their lives to COVID-19.
I enjoyed compiling the list because it gave me a way to look back on COVID-19 news coverage throughout 2020, with a focus on those stories that dug into the numbers—whether that was visualizing pandemic trends or explaining an issue with data collection and reporting. (Also, it was a fairly straightforward issue to compile and send out two days after Christmas!)
This year, I’m planning to compile a similar list: the 21 best COVID-19 data stories of 2021.
And I need your help to pick these stories! Last year’s list was very U.S.-heavy, as I primarily read coverage from national and New York city-specific publications, and I would love to make this year’s list more geographically diverse. Please send me COVID-19 data stories you loved from your local news outlet, your favorite science journalist, or any other publication.
To submit ideas, you can comment below, email me at betsy@coviddatadispatch.com, or reach out on Twitter or Facebook. My full list will go out in next week’s issue, on December 26, and I’ll accept submissions until the 25th.