Project 8: Datawrapper Multi-Media Assignment
A few weeks ago, March 11th marked a year since the Center for Disease Control and Prevention officially declared the coronavirus a pandemic, sending the world into lockdown and altering the course of everyone’s lives. Many were unsure of how long the virus would last. Some figured it would only last a few months, while others rightfully feared that it’s damaging effects could last for years. While over a year has passed since that fateful day, the light at the end of the tunnel is slowly starting to reemerge. With the increasing availability of vaccines, many are anticipating a gradual and much needed return to life prior to the outbreak of COVID-19. However, is this really the case? Using Data collected from the CDC, I decided to create two visual graphics to help provide some valuable insight and context into the coronavirus pandemic to help answer this very question.
The first graphic above is a chart that shows the total number of positive COVID-19 cases in the United States since the outbreak first occurred in February of 2020. As one can tell from the upward curve of the line, the virus has grown exponentially since then, with over twenty-eight million cases in the U.S alone. Fortunately, the trajectory of the curve appears to have flattened over the last few months. Many attribute this to the introduction of vaccines. With more and more people becoming fully vaccinated everyday, the spread of the virus continues to flatten the trajectory. But just how many people are vaccinated? To answer this question, I created a second chart seen below.
The map above shows the percentage of people that have been vaccinated in each state. While it is encouraging to see that nearly a third of the U.S population has been vaccinated, there is clearly still a ways to go. Although some states, like Connecticut, are nearly forty-percent vaccinated, others, such as Alabama, still have over seventy-five percent of the population that are unvaccinated. Interestingly, the map reveals a trend in regards to different areas of the country. The darker areas on the map, which show states that have a large amount of people who have been vaccinated, are all mostly in the northern regions such as the northeast, as well as the upper midwest and upper west coast. On the other end of the spectrum, the southern regions are lighter in color and show a much smaller percentage of the population that has been vaccinated. Whether this is due to cultural and political reasons, or other factors is an interesting debate. Whatever the case may be, the two graphs show clear progress in slowing down the spread of the COVID-19 virus and suggest a return to normality is on the horizon.
