This is a multi-chapter post! Read the other chapters here:

• Chapter 1: Finding reliable data
• Chapter 2: Visualizing exponential growth
• Chapter 3: Mapping the virus
• Chapter 4: We need to talk about flattening the curve
• Chapter 5: On top of the outbreak with daunting dashboards
• Chapter 6: Viral scrollytelling

In this final chapter, we’ll dive deeper into some of the insightful stories which have been published about the novel coronavirus and the COVID-19 pandemic. Rather than looking at single charts, we’ll highlight some long-form stories about the origin of the virus, how it works, and how it spread.

Two concepts should be explained beforehand: visual storytelling, and scrollytelling. Lorenzo Amabili explains both of them very well in his Nightingale article ‘From Storytelling To Scrollytelling: A Short Introduction and Beyond‘ (unfortunately a premium article):

• Visual storytelling, also called narrative visualisation, consists of creating a logical sequence of related (data-driven) visualisations, or visual elements, needed to convey a message to an audience in an engaging and effective way.

In other words, different visuals are strung together to form a logical story, which will keep readers more engaged and increase their understanding. It also allows you to discuss more complex topics by breaking them down into multiple easily understood visuals. These visuals will often be data-driven, but they can also be illustrations, videos, maps,… the possibilities are virtually endless!

• Scrollytelling is visual storytelling for the web: a powerful technique based on a simple concept: new content and visuals appear or change through transitions as users scroll down or up the web page.

This way of presenting information keeps the reader actively engaged with the content and the story. Furthermore, people can easily control the pace by scrolling up and down, back and forth through the story if they choose to re-read difficult sections or skip certain less interesting parts.

I must admit, I absolutely LOVE ❤ scrollytelling, and particularly well-executed examples are appearing more and more regularly in journalism. These advances are fueled by more innovative newsrooms such as the New York Times or the Washington Post, but quickly spreading throughout the world. For example, in Belgium, De Tijd regularly brings engaging scrollytelling stories by the team of Thomas Roelens and, before that, Maarten Lambrechts.

The remainder of this text is dedicated to some remarkable and marvelous examples of visual storytelling and scrollytelling about the coronavirus pandemic. This is absolutely not intended to be an exhaustive list, but rather a collection of interesting examples I encountered during my background research for these blog posts.

In March, The Economist published ‘Understanding SARS-CoV-2 and the drugs that might lessen its power‘, an in-depth story about the science behind the virus: how is SARS-CoV-2 built, how does it work and replicate itself, what does its genetic sequence look like, and which drugs might have a serious shot at eliminating it. A pretty hardcore scientific explanation, but made easily digestible thanks to some very clear and beautiful illustrations, such as this one by infographer Manuel Bortoletti:

Several scrollytelling articles have been created to explain the reasoning behind the epidemiological curve, how we can flatten it, and differences between different countries’ strategies to do so.

• ‘What Happens Next?‘ by epidemiologist Marcel Salathé and coder/designer Nicky Case explains the curve, SIR and SEIR models using playable simulations.
• ‘What we can learn from the countries winning the coronavirus fight‘ by ABC News uses scrollytelling to explain in detail what exponential growth is, how logarithmic charts work, and what flattening the curve really means.
• At this point, it might be useful to bring up again the infamous Washington Post article ‘Why outbreaks like coronavirus spread exponentially, and how to “flatten the curve”‘ by Harry Stevens, which we discussed in chapter 4, and is a great example of visual storytelling in itself.
• Another Washington Post article worth mentioning, on a similar note, is ‘How epidemics like covid-19 end (and how to end them faster)‘, also showing the effectiveness of wearing facemasks, or enforcing quarantaine.

Detail from ‘How epidemics like covid-19 end (and how to end them faster)’ (Washington Post)

• Or, if you prefer the Spanish version, ‘Cómo el confinamiento frena la cadena de contagios‘ by El País.

‘How the Virus Got Out‘ by the New York Times uses mesmerizing animations and crystal-clear maps to show how the virus spread from Wuhan, through long-distance train and air travel, to other parts of China and other countries throughout the world. They end with Donald Trump’s quote ‘The virus will not have a chance against us’ on March 11, placed next to a visual showing how by then, the virus already had a secure foothold in the US, with just over 1000 cases.

Detail from ‘How the Virus Got Out’ (New York Times)

This detailed look at how the virus spreads is taken one step further by Reuters Graphics in ‘The Korean Clusters‘. Thanks to insanely accurate contact tracing data being gathered in South Korea, the authorities were able to identify each individual case and how they infected each other. During the first four weeks, the disease was relatively contained, but then ‘patient 31’ emerged, who had at least 1160 traced contacts and went to crowded places such as churches and a hotel buffet while being infected. This is by far one of the most captivating visual stories I have encountered over the past few months!

Detail from ‘The Korean Clusters’ (Reuters Graphics), an amazing piece of visual storytelling.

Detail from ‘How Bad Will the Coronavirus Outbreak Get?’ (New York Times)

Detail from ‘The Workers Who Face the Greatest Coronavirus Risk’ (New York Times). Did I already mention that I ❤ scrollytelling stories like this?

This is a multi-chapter blog post!

Continue reading:

• Chapter 1: Finding reliable data
• Chapter 2: Visualizing exponential growth
• Chapter 3: Mapping the virus
• Chapter 4: We need to talk about flattening the curve
• Chapter 5: On top of the outbreak with daunting dashboards
• Chapter 6: Viral scrollytelling

For all your comments, suggestions, errors, links and additional information, you can contact me at koen@baryon.be or via Twitter at @koen_vde.

Disclaimer: I am not a medical doctor or a virologist. I am a physicist running my own business (Baryon) focused on information design.