2021 Notebook: COVID-19 Pandemic and Vaccine Deployment

Background: This year started with many promises.The world had vaccination..

And even when the planet killed two million people by mid-January, people in many hit countries, including the United States and the United Kingdom, began to roll up their sleeves and receive life-saving shots. rice field.

Deployment was sometimes volatile — production problems delayed delivery, and rich countries received most of the vaccine. However, the number of cases began to decrease sharply in February, raising expectations that it would soon return to normal.

Then came Delta. So many people remained unprotected that highly contagious variants of the virus swept the world. Some were inaccessible, while others were plagued by false information about the vaccine and refused to inject it. Incidents and deaths surged. Despite being vaccinated, more people died of COVID-19 in 2021 than in 2020, the first year of the pandemic. Thousands of those deaths could have been prevented.

And even if the delta surge slows down, there are new variants. Omicron, probably more contagious.

Here, some of the Associated Press journalists involved in the interview look back on the story and their own experiences.

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LAURAN NEERGAARD, Medical Writer, Washington DC:

The vaccine has just begun to be launched, so this year it started with great hope. Not only did one vaccine work, but several different varieties worked incredibly well. It was a great scientific achievement. And the first story was about demand. How many people desperately wanted to take shots while multiple companies struggled to increase the supply of different vaccines manufactured in different ways in different countries.

The surprise in all this hope was how quickly the false information turned into its own fad. Of course, I was expecting some of them. It’s natural for people to ask questions. Especially if you are busy living your life and not hanging out on all the scientific developments. However, there was a source of information that needed to classify genuine quality science from unfounded claims. And the amount of active disinformation was amazing. I never imagined I had to write, “No, there is no tip in the needle to track you.” And over time, false claims became more sophisticated. In time, you had to deal with a complete lie that was keeping people away with potentially fatal consequences.

We had to find a new way to do the job. … in parallel with the pandemic, there was an epidemic of disinformation as well as false information. I couldn’t move on just saying, “Well, I confirmed it.” It is our public responsibility to ensure that readers and viewers get the right information and have every opportunity to get the facts. Because the facts are important not only for choosing vaccines and other safety measures for yourself and your family, but also for ending the pandemic.

So the challenge was to find a way to tell the story fresh over and over again. Perhaps try different methods that can get people’s attention.

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HEATHER HOLLINGSWORTH, Reporter, Kansas and Missouri:

I live only 5km to Kansas, but I’m having problems with both Kansas and Missouri. They have many local sections of the state, many evangelicals who are a little reluctant to get vaccinated and masked because the problem is of course very political.

I was first involved in national virus coverage in the fall. I have three children, and the personal experience of suffering from such a hot mess, to be honest, felt like helping me. At first, I thought, “I don’t know what to do.” What are we going to do with these kids? This is terrible. But in a sense, I think it was an asset to live in the same turmoil that everyone you interviewed lived.

What I noticed when I started was the voice of people and doctors. I think the worst was December in January. There was a week when I felt like one in three people I talked to started crying. He talked about the death of a mother who lost her 20-year-old daughter, a man who recently adopted three children, and a wife. I talked to the CEO of the hospital who shed tears on the phone and the doctor who shed tears on the phone.

I talk to these people and say, “I know you’re the third person to cry on the phone today. It’s okay.” Then it got a little better and we were all very excited. In May and June people took off their masks. However, since then, Missouri vaccination numbers have actually stagnated at very low levels, some of the lowest in the country. In the southwestern part of the state, vaccination rates were in their teens, 20s and 30s. Really, really like a low level. And there is always a persistent feeling that this is not great.

Then the Delta Surge started, and it … spread to the south, and I helped find doctors and nurses dealing with it, and those stories were terrible. One nurse in Georgia spoke — they call it extubation when they are out of life support — and she talked about people collapsing. This one mom, her son, was in her 40s and was removed from life support and she just said she was yelling at him. “I told you to get vaccinated!” So it was really miserable to interview these people. But I was really honored that they were willing to open the door to me. It was one of the most interesting years of my life, or I think it’s two years of my life.

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SEBABATSO MOSAMO, Video Journalist, Johannesburg:

I was in Gqeberha, South Africa (now known as Gqeberha in South Africa) and covered a vaccine train that was running all over the country trying to vaccinate people. And it was in Port Elizabeth at this point. From a visual point of view, I needed someone who was coming to get vaccinated, rather than getting people who were already there.

So I met a woman who came to ask me what this train was. She saw it on her way to work and stopped and asked what was happening. And they told her, “We are here to vaccinate people. We will be here for the next x days.” And she was very enthusiastic about getting vaccinated and said, “Can I come?”And they said “OK”

So I talked to her, and we arranged for her to come the next day on her way to work, and she would be vaccinated. We arranged to chase her from her house. Visually, I agreed that it would be better to follow and talk alone, rather than showing a lot of people being jabbed.

We woke up very early the next day and met her at her house, and suddenly her overall attitude and attitude changed. … she started to get very short with us and was very frustrated. Eventually we did the whole trip and when she got there she told the staff she was really sick and tired of me. And that was really a little shocking to me. … I was told to stay, but she eventually decided not to get vaccinated.

I think it was the most difficult thing for me. Because there is still a part that I think might have influenced her. My presence had some influence on her decision. And it broke my heart. Because I had no way of knowing and she never told me. She disappeared a little off the line. When I asked the nurse, I decided not to get vaccinated, but I still feel that my existence had an effect.

It’s not a good feeling. So, when it comes to personally moving stories, that’s it.

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I think 2022 will be about how the continent will try, learn and teach scientists how to make their own vaccines from the perspective of Southern Africa and Africa. And that is the answer to inequality.

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For a complete overview of the events that shaped 2021, a collection of AP photos and journalist recollections, “Year that Changed Us: 12 Months with 150 Photos,” is now available: https: //www.ap.org/books / a-year-that-hanged-us