Ask a Reporter: What It’s Like to Cover the Pandemic Every Single Day
A short interview with science writer and editor Yasmin Tayag
If you’re familiar with Medium’s Coronavirus Blog, you’re probably familiar with Yasmin Tayag, the blog’s most prolific writer. Yasmin is also a senior editor at OneZero, where she runs the publication’s science coverage. Since the blog launched on March 20, Yasmin has written and reported Covid-19 stories about antibody testing, the science of masks, the George Floyd protests, what on Earth is happening in Florida (twice!), and much more.
I chatted with Yasmin over Slack about what the last few months have been like, how the pandemic coverage has evolved, and the most vexing question she has about Covid-19.
Alexandra Sifferlin, blog editor: Today is one of those days where I feel like I am constantly asking myself, “What is happening!?” Sometimes it feels hard to know what to cover first — the viral misinformation video, the test backlog, the MLB cases… That’s where my brain is at right now. What does covering the pandemic at this point feel like for you?
Yasmin Tayag, blog writer: It’s funny, every morning feels like a mad scramble to find and write a story, both because there’s so much to report and somehow, at the same time, also so few concrete things to say at all…
