Covering the U.S. During the Pandemic

Times Insider provides insight into the workings of Times Journalism and explains who and what they are.

It has been almost 2 years since the first Covid case was reported in the United States. The National desk has been covering all aspects of the coronavirus pandemic. The National desk is a network of reporters located across the country. They constantly adapt to major events, while also dealing with the risks of Covid-19. Below, some of those reporters share a few of the ways they have adapted to this new reality — and what they’ve learned along the way.

Forging new reporting skills when you can’t interview someone in person.

It taught us a new skill set when it came to interviewing people and asking them details that are not normally available to you. You’re going to depend on the people you were interviewing to give you those details. — Patricia Mazzei, Miami bureau chief

When the story changes, adapt.

My coverage plan for 2020 was to focus on education. Because we had a presidential election coming up, I planned to continue a series of articles I began in 2019 about how the nation’s history was taught; how race was taught; how our history as a nation of immigrants was taught. But then, we all got completely sidelined by the pandemic. Since February 2020, I have been reporting full-time on Covid schools and covid. What’s ironic is that the curriculum has become really relevant again politically with the pushback to critical race theory and the banning of books. I know of colleagues who are now focusing on these stories. And I’ve learned an enormous amount about public health and viruses. Covid was in some ways a good story for what I know. I love working with data and research which was crucial during the pandemic. — Dana Goldstein, domestic correspondent based in New York

Learn to live the story.

“I started to get the news that my family was getting infected. I was in denial. I continued reporting and interviewing experts about the pandemic. My relatives started getting sicker every day. It got to the point that I had to stop writing about the story and focus solely on my family. I had to eventually merge these two worlds into a single article., This publication was published in July 2020.
— Edgar Sandoval, national reporter, based in Texas

Navigating politics of masks

Because masks have become such a political symbol, it’s actually been easier to report from a place with universal masking rules. That way, whether you’re wearing a mask or not doesn’t get read as some signal of your identity or politics. It just says that you’re complying with the rules of whatever place you’re in. As a reporter, it makes my job much easier. — Jack Healy, national correspondent based in Phoenix

Reporting with precautions

The pandemic hasn’t kept the National desk from covering this country, in all its corners, or from actually going to the places where it was happening. I think we’ve all learned to take the precautions that we need to and to make sure that we feel that we’re not taking any inappropriate risks, but there’s always risks inherent in reporting. Although reporting in person was more difficult than before vaccines, I found that I could report from almost anywhere with good masks and enough water and food in my backpack even in the early days. — J. David Goodman, Houston bureau chief

Tackling A more complex news cycle

The National desk had to cover the pandemic in 2020, which was why it was so difficult. We had to cover massive protests following George Floyd’s passing. We had to cover the worst wildfire season in one of most severe hurricane seasons. These are all very demanding stories and we had to cover them all simultaneously. I think that’s kind of like a harbinger of the future in a lot of ways. There is no back burner. You can’t have six pots boiling simultaneously and you must give them the same amount of attention and care. How do you do that? You know, that’s the dilemma. —Rick Rojas is a national correspondent based in Nashville