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By Ben Woo, Managing Director

Units of measure are meant to be easily understood ways to quantify something. Horsepower helps us understand power. “Football field” is a colloquial American way to understand long distances, until you enter “Trips around the world” territory and eventually lightyears.

It’s hard to conceptualize just how many Americans have died due to Coronavirus – 141,677 as of this writing on July 22, according to the CDC. It’s an astronomical number to apply to a number of people that have died in such a short period of time, but the way the numbers are often reported and discussed have dehumanized the death toll. These days, it seems Coronavirus deaths have only been compared to those in other regions – state by state, like the Washington Post does with new cases in the top 6 states, or country by country, like this chart that shows America vs. other countries. 

When was the last time we really grieved as a nation for thousands of people? Some track gun deaths, school shooting deaths, and police violence deaths, but those numbers are as politicized as Coronavirus numbers. Others track violence in movies and television and video games, but nobody ‘mourns’ the loss of those fictional characters (aside from that of Glenn in The Walking Dead).

The last time that we as a nation recognized a mass loss of life was September 11th, 2001. The 2,996 people who died that day as a result of terrorist attacks were mourned all over the world. Their faces, families, and life stories cut short were seen and known – not just a number, but a human life tragically lost. “NEVER FORGET” became a popular refrain, although it’s an incomplete thought. If the pledge was to NEVER FORGET the sanctity of life and our responsibility to protect one another, then let’s apply that lesson here.

Currently, 141,677 deaths have been directly attributed to Coronavirus in the United States. This is forty-seven times the number of deaths attributed to terrorist attacks of 9/11. So, if we apply this as a unit of measurement, the Coronavirus in the US has caused forth-seven 9/11’s worth of tragic deaths. Forty-seven 9/11’s since February 29. In the past 7 days 5,529 people in the US died of Coronavirus. Or, 1.84 9/11’s in the past week. That’s 789 people dying per day, or just over a quarter of a 9/11’s deaths in one day. 

So, the next time you see a number that represents a number of people who tragically passed away due to Covid-19, divide it by 2,996 to figure out how many 9/11’s it is. It helps convey the depths of devastation and human empathy that should accompany such a brutal statistic. This feels jarring to write and jarring to read – but that’s the point. It should be jarring to consider 141,677 people have died due to Covid-19

As strategists and researchers, we have a responsibility to interpret data in meaningful ways for our clients. Ethical data reporting in consulting and journalism means reporting not just on what the numbers are, but what they mean. The latter is just as important as, if not more than, the former. Sanitized statistics devoid of human experience is how Joseph Stalin was able to commit the atrocities he did. He is famously quoted as saying, “A single death is a tragedy; a million deaths is a statistic.” Stalin capitalized on our tendency to separate numbers and meaning. Our inability to acutely fathom humanity in magnitudes. Our job as responsible researchers and consultants is to help people see humanity in numbers. To use Humansight is to see the person behind the number. 

Never forget the people behind the numbers rolled out day-after-day. Each of those numbers represents a son, a daughter, a mother, a father – someone who mattered – even when it’s heartbreaking to multiply that number by over a hundred thousand. If it helps to do so, divide that death toll by 2,996 – never forget that human life is sacred, not data.