[Gentle music]
[Reporter] behind the statistics are families.
Some Americans bearing more of a burden than others.
As president trump tries to diminish the toll still rising
loved ones are being mourned.
Stolen too soon.
Cynthia Watson was 64.
She worked at the Pentagon once, before a stroke put her in a nursing home.
In just two weeks she went from the home to a DC hospital
and died there.
We met her daughter, Lakeisha at the funeral home.
[Lakeisha] She was very young, a loving kind, caring person.
Due to COVID, you know, COVID had to take her away from us
and you know we just heartbroken.
And just praying for the rest of the people out in the community
that we don't lose any more life
because I don't want nobody to ever have to experience what I went through.
It's so heartbroken.
[Reporter] We're all in this together, so the saying goes
but the toll in the U.S. is not equally shared.
One in three Black Americans know someone who's died of COVID-19.
Compared to one in 10 white Americans.
Pandemic deaths dog trump's leadership.
His playing down the persistence of the virus in favour of opening up the economy has cost him.
His predictions were skewed from the start.
February 26th:
When you have 15 people
and the 15, within a couple of days, is going to be down to close to zero.
That's a pretty good job we've done.
[Reporter] February 28th:
35,000 people on average die each year from the flu.
Did anyone know that?
35,000 that's a lot of people.
[Reporter] The coronavirus has killed close to four times as many.
And you wonder the press is in hysteria mode.
CNN fake news and their camera just went off.
[Crowd roars]
[Reporter] But by the end of March, no more smiles.
What do you say to Americans who are watching you right now who are scared?
I say that you're a terrible reporter.
That's what I say.
I think it's a very nasty question
and I think it's a very bad signal
that you're putting out to the American people.
Unfortunately, we have a president in this country who governs by polarization.
By confrontation, by accusations of conspiracies and of enemies
and he decided to go with the polarizing narrative about this pandemic
[Reporter] Trump has made not wearing a mask a sign of independence
even blind loyalty at a densely packed rally.
I don't think we're going to be able to escape this polarized framework
in which wearing a mask has become a political statement
as to which side you're on.
[Reporter] Long before Donald Trump got to the White House
Theodore Gaffney was there as a press photographer.
He was one of the first Black Americans to go on the White House to take pictures.
[Reporter] Maria Santos Gaffney is his wife.
And then he got involved with the Freedom Riders
as a publication journalist.
[Reporter] The Freedom Riders rode buses into the segregated South in 1961
and Gaffney took pictures.
He became a civil rights activist
but didn't live long enough to see this spring's revolution for justice.
In early April he got sick.
He wouldn't eat her drink.
That's when he took to George Washington Hospital
and a couple hours later they thought he had COVID-19
and he never never came out.
[Reporter] He and maria had met in her home, Brazil
a May-December romance.
They married for 31 years, living in Washington
until COVID took him
[Gaffney] I tell people at the time, this virus is killing, it's killing fast.
Especially the elderly folks.
He was 92-years-old.
He didn't have a chance with a virus.
Maria, he was 92, but you say he was very active.
Very active.
With a huge drive.
Every time I need to go somewhere.
Because he was 92 doesn't mean he is undeserving of life like everybody else.
I went to the hospital.
I looked at him through the window one day in his room
I watched him in pain.
That was not a pretty sight to see somebody you love in pain.
And not be able to breathe on his own.
Not to be able to talk.
Nothing like that.
It was not fun to watch somebody die
especially because of COVID-19.
Do not tell me because he's 92 he should have died of COVID-19.
I was expecting him to live a lot longer.
To stay with me because we've been together for so long.
He lost his life and I'm the biggest loser because I don't have him anymore.
[Reporter] In the end, the coronavirus is not buried.
Pandemic politics which propelled states to reopen
now present new deaths
and leave behind newly bereaved.
What do you want to tell people Keisha?
Stay socially distant, wear your mask
don't have a large gathering and take this serious because
it only becomes serious to some
when they hit their family
and we don't want to ever have to bury another family member
or another person in the world
because we care about the people that's dying.
I watch the numbers and I care about those as well.
I just hope, pray that they can find a vaccination for it
so that everybody can stop dying.
[Reporter] Sadly, in 2020 saying goodbye is all too frequent.
Susan Ormiston, CBC News, Washington.