geoff: Each day, the Twitter
thread "Faces of covid" posts
the names, images, and a short
remembrance of Americans who
have died from covid-19.
The project was started by
boston-based communications
consultant Alex Bernstein, who
has posted more than 7,000
remembrances since starting the
feed in March 2020.
I recently spoke with Bernstein,
and started by asking him about
a recent post on the site -- 25
year-old teddy Nelson, who died
of covid on April 11, 2020.
And because of hospital covid
protocols at the time, teddy was
in quarantine.
No family, no friends could
visit him in his final hours.
Alex: Unfortunately, so many of
the stories that were submitted
to faces of covid over the last
two years are people who did not
have their loved ones at their
side when they passed away.
So many people said goodbye by
facetime or via zoom and I think
it's a reminder just how much
pain and trauma we have yet to
process, not just for the folks
who have lost somebody they
love, but for the broader
community overall and across the
country.
What does it mean to process a
million people who were not, who
are not here now, who were here
two years ago?
I don't think we've even begun
to really examine what that is
going to take and how much work
we have to do to bring some
peace into people's lives.
Geoff: Is that why you wanted to
start this, this Twitter account
faces of covid?
Alex: Yeah.
You know, I think first and
foremost, I started the account
because I thought that we needed
to really affirm the dignity of
the people who have lost their
lives.
And I think we did a really, I
think, highly credible job of
telling a data driven story
about the number of people who
were sick, the number of
ventilators that were needed,
the number of people who were
losing their lives each day.
But they were cold statistics.
And without knowing the names
and the faces and the stories
behind those numbers, I thought
we were doing a disservice to
those who had died and to the
families who were left behind,
who I think more than anything,
we're looking back, you know,
through the window to the rest
of the world saying, do you see
what we're losing?
Do you see the pain that we are
all enduring?
Because I think so many of the
rituals we've come to rely on
when we lose people that matter
to us and our lives have been
stripped away from us these past
two years and that we need to
find the types of spaces and
avenues for people to mourn that
grief together.
Geoff: As you've curated this
account, what stories stand out
to you?
Alex: You know, I think about a
lot of different kinds of
stories.
Sometimes it's the stories of
young people who had their
entire lives ahead of them and
were robbed of decades of joy
and their families' joy because
of this pandemic.
Oftentimes, it's the stories of
just frank injustice of people
who should not have been lost
but were forced to work without
the proper protective gear or
forced to work while they were
sick, or the people who were
lost because of systemic
misinformation and anti-science
aggression around vaccines.
I think there's just so many
different ways in which this
pandemic has brought indignity
to the lives of people at the
very end of their lives.
But you know, more often than
not, the stories that linger
with me the most are the ones in
which I see my own family and my
own friends in the faces and the
names and the stories of others
who I never knew.
And I think that's really part
of the point, which is if we can
see ourselves in the suffering
of others, if we can see our own
loved ones in the stories of
people who have lost someone, I
think that is a step towards all
of us making better public
health decisions and seeing our
stake and looking after each
other.
Geoff: So much of this pandemic
has been politicized.
Whether or not to wear a mask,
whether or not to get a vaccine,
whether or not you should get a
booster shot.
And yet you have gone to great
lengths to make sure that this
account is in no way partisan.
Why was that important to you
and how have you done that?
Alex: Well, a part of it is that
I don't think that we need to
establish a litmus test for what
we grieve and who we grieve
together.
I think that the reality is that
I wanted to create a space where
anyone who had lost someone
could use that space to be a
part of their mourning process
and a part of their grieving
process.
I think one thing I've learned
is that we have an instinct to
assume that we know an awful lot
about people's lives.
And these last two years has
reminded me that we don't know
that much about the different
struggles that people face and
what leads to the decisions that
they make.
And I've tried not to make this
a place that passes judgment,
but rather a place that's more
healing and open to create a
venue for people to wrestle with
their grief together and with
strangers they've never met.
Geoff: One hopes that at one
point, covid is eradicated.
Are you going to keep this
going?
Alex: You know, I was doing the
back of the envelope math the
other day and realized that,
with 7000 stories, that puts me
fairly significantly under one
percent of the losses that have
been shared through this
account.
So certainly there are just
countless other stories to tell.
And so long as there are still
families that are seeking a
level of acknowledgment and
affirmation of what they have
been through and the trauma that
they have experienced, I will
still be sharing these stories
and feel like it's a
responsibility to do so now that
this opportunity exists. Geoff:
Thank you for your efforts and
shining a light on some the
stories and stories that
deserved to be elevated.
So thank you.
Thanks for your time.
Alex: Yeah, absolutely.