The line between life and video was blurred this year. Grids of talking heads on Zoom became the norm for school, work, legislating, court hearings, birthday parties and more.
But off-screen life continued, especially in the spring and summer, when businesses took their first tentative steps to reopen and racial justice protests rippled across the state. Video — not just videoconferencing — was a key way we engaged with the news this year. Here are our top multimedia features of 2020.
Vermont’s deadliest decade: How fatal police encounters skyrocketed in the 2010s
The death of Chris Louras in October 2019 rounded out the deadliest year in Vermont history for killings at the hands of police. It was also the deadliest decade: 17 people died at the hands of police in the 2010s, a drastic increase from previous decades, even though the overall population has remained static.
Our documentary short pieces together footage of devastating fatal encounters with interviews of experts, law enforcement officials and policymakers to show the true cost of fatal shootings and explore solutions. In October, the project won a 2020 LION Award for Best Visual Journalism Project.
Inside Vermont’s only coronavirus testing lab
Just two days before Gov. Phil Scott’s Covid-19 executive order locked down state facilities and mandated remote work, VTDigger visited the state’s health laboratory in Colchester to learn how coronavirus testing worked. At the time, this was the only location where Covid-19 tests were being processed, with a capacity of about 80 per day. Our story and video provided answers to common questions about Covid testing at a time when information on the new virus was hard to come by.
This Vermont town dodged the 1918 flu. Does it hold lessons for Covid-19?
In May, the town of Fletcher was one of 140 Vermont towns that had yet to record a single Covid case. But the Franklin County community stuck out for an even more enviable public health record: It was one of just a handful of locations in the United States that dodged the deadly influenza outbreak of 1918. Locals had their theories about why, but one public health historian said the town may have just had a stroke — or two — of good luck.
Scenes from a week of racial justice protests across Vermont
The first wave of demonstrations following the killing of George Floyd by police in Minneapolis signaled what was to come: a protest movement that would last for months and influence policy decisions in both the Legislature and in local police departments. Scenes from early protests in Montpelier, Burlington, Rutland and Brattleboro were among our most watched videos of the year.
Montpelier’s historic Wayside Restaurant survives its second pandemic
Another callback to the 1918 pandemic sits among the gravestones in Barre’s Hope Cemetery. Brian Zecchinelli, whose grandfather Germinio died from the Spanish flu, commissioned a granite memorial there in 2018. That year also marked the 100th anniversary of the Wayside, the Montpelier restaurant Zecchinelli runs with his wife Karen. As the Wayside reopened its doors after a monthslong closure, Zecchinelli reflected on the two pandemics the restaurant had survived.
Plus, here are this year’s top 10 episodes of The Deeper Dig, VTDigger’s weekly newsroom podcast.
10. Behind the ‘kudos’ for Vermont’s Covid success
9. Vermont’s Covid long-haulers look for answers
8. Decoding Vermont’s COVID-19 projections
7. Can Covid ease Vermont’s demographic crisis?
6. Two candidates, two economic visions
5. Who gets hazard pay?
4. How Covid-19 spread at a UVM basketball game
3. Why we tattle
2. The next phase of the pandemic in Vermont
1. Vermont’s spike in unemployment claims, explained
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