Historical COVID-19 chronology to be referenced for years to come

In November 2020, The Independent Panel for Pandemic Preparedness and Response (the Panel) began to compile an authoritative chronology of the events linked to the emergence of and response to SARS-CoV-2 and the COVID-19 disease. The Panel set out to examine the facts (science and COVID-19 cases); the resulting alerts by the World Health Organization (WHO) as well as other international and government bodies; and, individual countries’ responses to the COVID-19 threat. For the Panel, the chronology intended to form the basis for further questioning as well as research and analysis into why and how SARS-CoV-2 evolved from a localized outbreak, to a global pandemic. 

The project’s objective was to communicate the complexity of the COVID-19 pandemic’s evolution through an authoritative chronology. The solution needed to show the spread of SARS-CoV-2 and actions taken locally, nationally and globally. It needed to be 100% accurate and evidence-based; contain real-time and retrospective information, legible and compelling to a range of audiences, including global health policy specialists, academics, and mainstream journalists.

Hopgood Creative was responsible for two outputs of the chronology: a designed easily referenceable PDF document and an interactive, multimedia public-facing website. Following its creation the PDF document became an academic reference that was published by The Lancet and a background paper published by the Panel as an accompaniment to their main report.