Beat of the Week

(Honorable Mention)

The motorcycle diary: Photos of NYC in the pandemic era

found themselves in a city that had gone to ground. Faced with the challenge of photographing the absence of life in a city normally teeming with it, they took more than a dozen motorcycle trips through a New York virtually emptied by the virus, making raw, “drive-by” images. They recorded ghostly pedestrians, lone workers, eerie post-apocalyptic streetscapes and shrouds of fog. And while the virus is unseen, the threat of it appears in the eyes of the people still on the street.https://bit.ly/2Vz99nlhttps://bit.ly/3bxhKMIhttps://bit.ly/2S2pnmuhttps://bit.ly/3bBvfen

Beat of the Week

(Honorable Mention)

Testing, testing: A portrait of French nursing homes

spent two days chronicling three nursing homes in France’s Haut-Rhin region as the patients and staff all underwent comprehensive testing to determine who must be isolated and who would be allowed the freedom to leave their rooms. One goal: to give patients who are not infected the opportunity to chat face to face, to play board games, to share meals. Badias had rare and exclusive access to the nursing homes, providing compelling photos, video and key text elements for the story he bylined with Paris reporter Lori Hinnant. https://bit.ly/2Y23kAm

Beat of the Week

(Honorable Mention)

States, feds pressured to reveal nursing home outbreaks

used the power of the AP to highlight an almost unfathomable fact – the federal government and many states have not publicly tracked coronavirus infections and deaths in individual nursing homes – and their story was followed very quickly by policy changes. A day after their story appeared, New York announced it would indeed release a list of individual nursing homes and how many deaths each one had. And less than a week later, the federal government announced it would begin the same process.https://bit.ly/2VRcP2Khttps://bit.ly/2yAhgaf

Beat of the Week

(Honorable Mention)

Disturbing court case of virus-stricken detainee

used careful source work to get a rare interview with a migrant in detention who was stricken with COVID-19. Salomon Diego Alonzo coughed and gasped through much of the interview, and what came next was even more disturbing: Alonzo was forced to attend a crucial asylum hearing by phone, lasting two hours before the judge decided to delay the case. Alonzo was hospitalized the following day. Merchant wove a compelling story, bringing to life one hearing that exposed a callous handling of sick immigrants amid the pandemic. https://bit.ly/3bxPUAb

Beat of the Week

(Honorable Mention)

All-formats look at BP oil disaster, 10 years later

produced a comprehensive, multiformat Only on AP package marking 10 years since the fatal Deepwater Horizon explosion and massive oil spill. Three pieces ran over three days: investigative work that showed continued and increasing drilling risks, a personal look at how life has changed along the coast, and the lasting environmental impacts a decade after the disaster. https://apnews.com/DeepwaterHorizonSpill

Beat of the Week

(Honorable Mention)

‘Cartels are scrambling’ as virus disrupts drug trade

revealed how the coronavirus is taking a bite out of the global drug trafficking – everything from severing key supply chains for Chinese precursor drugs to paralyzing the economies upon which drug sales rely. With detailed, on-the-record source work, they reported why drug cartels in Mexico and Colombia are being disrupted and how that is playing out in cities across the U.S., mostly in the form of tight supplies and prices that have risen to crisis-gouging levels. https://bit.ly/355KtWz

Beat of the Week

(Honorable Mention)

AP: Why dozens died inside Virginia nursing home

teamed up to report what went wrong inside a Virginia long-term care center where COVID-19 killed 45 residents, surpassing the Kirkland, Washington, nursing care center that became the nation’s initial hotspot. The pair reviewed records and developed sources, including patients’ families and the center’s medical director, who described the desperate situation inside the Canterbury Rehabilitation & Healthcare Center as a “virus’s dream.” https://bit.ly/3by5RGs

Beat of the Week

(Honorable Mention)

In images: Jackals occupy popular Tel Aviv park

produced a unique photo package on a rare situation caused by the pandemic lockdown in Israel: Packs of jackals are roaming a main park in Tel Aviv in search for food. The coronavirus lockdown has dramatically changed Tel Aviv’s normally bustling Hayarkon Park to an eerily quiet place, clearing the way for the jackals to take over the urban oasis. https://bit.ly/2VsSim7

Beat of the Week

(Honorable Mention)

Scoop on deportees arriving in Guatemala with virus

acted on a tip from a government source to report that a recent flight from the U.S. had 44 deportees who so far had tested positive for the coronavirus. The scoop was explosive in Guatemala where angst is growing about deportees spreading the virus and it forced the U.S. government to speak more about the virus’s spread among detained migrants. Even a story from a competitive agency had to credit the AP exclusive. https://bit.ly/2VRjda0

Beat of the Week

(Honorable Mention)

AP analysis sees more extreme racial disparity in virus cases

gathered and analyzed state and local data to find that nearly one-third of those who have died in the COVID-19 outbreak are African American, with black people representing about 14% of the population in the areas covered in the analysis. And beyond the data the team’s all-formats story looked into the lives of people personally affected. https://bit.ly/2S4NZLshttps://bit.ly/2VUjJEo

Best of the States

AP traces black Americans’ history of mistrust toward the medical field

As New York, Chicago, New Orleans and other cities with large black populations began to emerge as hot spots for COVID-19, reporters Aaron Morrison and Jay Reeves decided it would be relevant to examine how black Americans have historically mistrusted the medical field.

The pair connected the skepticism in the black community in part to the aftermath of the notorious “Tuskegee Study,” in which roughly 600 poor black Alabama men were left untreated for syphilis to track the disease’s progress. The secret program was exposed in 1972 and ended, but its effects linger, well beyond Alabama.

With photography by Bebeto Matthews, the story received heavy play as the nation wrestled with the high rate of coronavirus infections among the black community.

For setting the AP apart with a timely examination of black Americans’ mistrust of the medical field, Morrison, Reeves and Matthews win this week’s Best of the States award. 

Best of the Week — First Winner

All-formats team chronicles a pivotal 24 hours in ‘The Fight for New York’

On April 6 – the day when the COVID-19 death toll in New York City exceeded the toll of the Sept. 11 attacks – a team of AP journalists fanned out to tell the stories of average New Yorkers navigating the pandemic. 

From the bodega owner whose remaining customers are often funeral home workers, to a paramedic worried about the way the onslaught of cases was eating away at him and other first responders, the stories provided a vivid account of a city bent, but not broken, by the virus. “The Fight for New York” was a testament to the AP at its finest: smart planning and collaboration leading to 11 impactful text and video stories, more than two dozen photos and nine social edits, all delivered to customers with remarkable speed.

The package immediately resonated with readers, viewers and customers, winning strong play on the websites of most major news organizations. 

For extraordinary teamwork, planning and execution, the team of journalists behind “The Fight for New York” wins AP’s Best of the Week award.

Beat of the Week

(Honorable Mention)

Documenting the care of Spain’s most vulnerable generation

spent two weeks accompanying home health care workers and emergency medical personnel as they tended to isolated and elderly patients in Spain, some of whom survived the Spanish Civil War and are now enduring new coronavirus. With exquisite visual storytellling, Morenatti captured both dedicated health care professionals and a frail, vulnerable generation, not only in the patients’ masked faces but in their artwork, religious icons, trinkets and family photographs – the artifacts of a lifetime. The unique images, unmistakably European, are at once beautifully realized, intimate and heartbeaking. https://bit.ly/2V9nvKS

Beat of the Week

(Honorable Mention)

AP Exclusive: US nursing home deaths surge past 3,600

did what the federal government has not: keeping count of U.S. nursing home deaths as they have exploded in the coronavirus pandemic, rising from 450 to nearly 4,000 in less than two weeks. Herschaft independently built a tally from the state health departments, and for states that don’t provide such numbers he scoured media reports on outbreaks across the nation. At the same time, Condon’s reporting added valuable context on the massive gaps that exist in government transparency on this issue. That resulted in a sweeping story that saw massive play on a very busy coronavirus weekend. https://bit.ly/2z5aMjN

Beat of the Week

(Honorable Mention)

Exclusive coverage as China lifts Wuhan lockdown

delivered exclusive coverage of the end of the lockdown in Wuhan. Live video, including footage of a surprise midnight light show, was accompanied by still images both before and after China lifted the lockdown in the city where the pandemic began.https://bit.ly/3crWIiRhttps://bit.ly/2Vy1dBjhttps://bit.ly/3bdTwXMhttps://bit.ly/2XCNtYM

Beat of the Week

(Honorable Mention)

A uniquely New Orleans take on the coronavirus

tell a very New Orleans story of loss and struggle in the coronavirus outbreak, looking through the lens of the storied Krewe of Zulu with words and images.https://bit.ly/34C4Z0Ehttps://bit.ly/3bdDgWz

Beat of the Week

(Honorable Mention)

AP among first to examine racial disparities of COVID-19

requested data on racial breakdowns for the COVID-19 disease in states, cities and counties nationwide, ultimately analyzing data from eight states, six major U.S. cities and six of Florida’s largest counties. The result was one of the first and most deeply reported examinations of the racial disparities of U.S. cases and deaths, reviewing more than 4,450 deaths and 52,000 COVID-19 cases across the country. https://bit.ly/2Xy7TSO

Best of the Week — First Winner

Rare glimpses inside the pandemic: An ICU in Spain, a New York funeral home

“No.”

“Never.”

“Not possible.”  

“Can't be done.”

Photographer Felipe Dana and video journalist Renata Brito were told in no uncertain terms that Spanish hospitals and their intensive care units in particular would not allow access to journalists reporting on the coronavirus pandemic. And in New York, the all-formats team of John Minchillo, Robert Bumsted and Jake Seiner was given largely the same answer when they tried to get into a funeral home to document the surge of victims literally piling up.

Neither team took no for an answer. Both teams produced haunting images and text documenting the stark reality wrought by the pandemic.

The tenacity, skill and bravery on display from both teams was the difference between getting the story out to the world and revealing the human cost of the crisis – or not. It’s the latest example of AP journalists proving that “No. Never. Not Possible,” does not apply to them. And it is why Dana, Brito, Minchillo, Bumsted and Seiner share AP’s Best of the Week award.

Best of the States

Only on AP: The delicate subject of funerals, now held at a distance

When a South Carolina Army veteran died last month, his family decided to invite The Associated Press to take one of the few spots the funeral home would allow for people at the service. His loved ones knew this funeral and their mourning would look different from the usual rituals, and they wanted to share that with other families faced with grief in the coronavirus outbreak. 

North Carolina-based journalist Sarah Blake Morgan took on the delicate task. She shot photos and video from an appropriate social distance, not only to stay safe but out of respect for the family. In her images and words, she painted a picture of a ritual that once brought people comfort but now brings new tension and challenges. 

For her sensitive work delivering a moving Only on AP package on a human angle of the virus outbreak, Morgan wins this week’s Best of the States award.

Beat of the Week

(Honorable Mention)

AP investigation: US wasted months before preparing for pandemic

examined weeks of federal procurement records, including a thorough review of federal purchasing contracts, to create a detailed timeline of events related to the spread of COVID-19 and the Trump administration’s response to the outbreak. The records show that the U.S. wasted two months when it could have been preparing to deal with the coronavirus pandemic. Federal agencies largely waited until mid-March – when hospitals in several states were already treating thousands of infected patients – to begin placing bulk orders of N95 respirator masks, mechanical ventilators and other equipment needed by front-line health care workers.

When AP White House reporter Kevin Freking attempted to ask Trump about the issue at Sunday’s briefing, the president angrily cut off the question, helping drive readers to Biesecker’s story, which was widely shared on social media.https://bit.ly/3aVhmavhttps://bit.ly/3aZdLby