Best of AP — Honorable Mention

AP Exclusive: US nursing home deaths surge past 3,600

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New York investigative news researcher Randy Herschaft and investigative reporter Bernard Condon did what the federal government has not: keeping count of U.S. nursing home deaths as they have exploded in the coronavirus pandemic, rising from 450 to nearly 4,000 in less than two weeks.

Herschaft built his own tally from the state health departments that provide such numbers. And for those that don’t, he scoured media reports to fill in the blanks on outbreaks across the nation. At the same time, Condon’s reporting added valuable context on the massive gaps that exist in government transparency on this issue – most states release only total counts and not details of individual outbreaks. Notable among those states is the nation’s leader, New York

The story made front pages, was a top story on AP mobile, and AP’s tally was cited by a Washington Post editorial calling for greater quality care in light of the disproportionately high death rate in such facilities. https://bit.ly/2z5aMjN

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