KHN and Guardian US Win National Press
Club Award for “Lost on the Frontline”
The Year-Long
Investigative Project Chronicles the Lives of More than 3,600 Health Care
Workers Who Died of COVID-19
KFF’s Kaiser Health News
(KHN) and Guardian US have won the National Press Club’s top award for
online journalism for their “Lost on the Frontline” investigation. The
year-long project documented the lives of more than 3,600 health care
workers in the U.S. who died after contracting covid-19 on the job.
The Press Club’s Joan M. Friedenberg Online Journalism Award recognizes
“the best journalism that uses online technology to provide a more
compelling report than a print or broadcast story alone.” Journalists at
KHN and the Guardian developed a searchable
online database of those who died and used that as the jumping
off point for a series of
investigative reports that provided a window into the workings
– and failings – of the American health care system during the pandemic.
They found that many of the deaths could have been prevented. Widespread
shortages of masks and other personal protective gear, a lack of covid
testing, weak contact tracing, inconsistent mask guidance by politicians,
missteps by employers and lax enforcement of workplace safety rules by
government regulators all contributed to the increased risk faced by
health care workers.
Among the key findings was that two-thirds of deceased health care
workers for whom the project has data were people of color, revealing the
deep inequities tied to race, ethnicity and economic status in America’s
health care workforce. Lower-paid workers such as nurses, support staff
and nursing home employees were more likely to die than physicians were.
More than 100 journalists contributed to the project. They filed public
records requests, combed through governmental and private data sources,
scoured obituaries and social media posts, and confirmed deaths through
family members, workplaces, and colleagues.
This is the second time in four years that KHN has won this National
Press Club award. The newsroom, an operating program of KFF, won in 2018
for an
investigation into the booming orphan drug business. The Lost
on the Frontline project also has been recognized with awards from the
News Leaders Association, World Association of News Publishers and the
NIHCM Foundation, just a few of the many awards and
honors that KHN has received for its journalism.
About KFF and KHN
KHN
(Kaiser Health News) is a national newsroom that produces in-depth
journalism about health issues. Together with Policy Analysis and
Polling, KHN is one of the three major operating programs at KFF
(Kaiser Family Foundation). KFF is an endowed nonprofit organization
providing information on health issues to the nation.
About Guardian News
& Media
Guardian US
is renowned for its Pulitzer Prize-winning investigation into widespread
secret surveillance by the National Security Agency, and for other
award-winning work, including The Paradise Papers. Guardian US has
bureaus in New York, Washington, New Orleans and Oakland, California,
covering the climate crisis, politics, race and immigration, gender,
national security and more.
Guardian News & Media
(GNM), publisher of theguardian.com, is one of the largest
English-speaking newspaper websites in the world. Since launching its
U.S. and Australian digital editions in 2011 and 2013, respectively,
traffic from outside of the U.K. now represents over two-thirds of The
Guardian’s total digital audience.
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