Human spirit will conquer this awful plague

On Sunday, the New York Times published a strikingly powerful front page on the terrible consequences of the Covid-19 pandemic. The article did have not a single image. Instead, the Times ran the names of 1,000 people who had died since the outbreak of the virus in the US, telling the reader, in a few words, a bit about every person on the list.

Their names and ages, what they did and where they were from — all small obituary-style details that gave us some insight into the reach of Covid-19 in the US.

The names ran over to the inside pages but, even so, they represented just 1% of the 100,000 people who have already succumbed to the virus in that country.

“They were not simply names on a list. They were us,” the subheading on the unconventional article read.

The front page was in stark contrast to the colourful, upbeat one published by The Herald on Monday.

A group of survivors shared how they had overcome Covid-19. Pictures of them smiling were featured alongside their stories.

Among them was a young mother who also has stage 4 cancer and a promising young cricketer who, at the time he tested positive for Covid-19, was already dealing with being diagnosed with Guillain-Barre Syndrome, a rare autoimmune disorder that placed him in the high-risk category for the coronavirus.

These two front pages remind us that the Covid-19 story has many facets.

Over the past few months, we have read some of these stories — more than just words on a page, but the real-life experiences of many people around the world and in SA — about everything from the daily battle to feed families to growing frustration over the government’s continued ban on the sale of tobacco.

No matter how trivial or irrelevant some of these stories might appear, they matter greatly to those affected by this dreadful virus.

We fervently hope that, ultimately, the story that will prevail will be one of triumph.