Op-Ed: Governor, My Father's Death Is on Your Hands

In a July 2020 op-ed published in The Washington Post, Marked by COVID Co-Founder Kristin Urquiza wrote about the preventable death of her father, Mark Anthony Urquiza, a healthy 65-year-old who died from COVID-19 on June 30, 2020. Kristin traced a direct line between the messaging from Arizona Governor Doug Ducey and President Trump—who told Arizonans it was safe to resume normal activities—and her father's decision to go back out into the world he loved. The op-ed followed Kristin's viral obituary for her father in the Arizona Republic and became one of the defining pieces of writing about political accountability during the pandemic.

The op-ed helped launch Marked by COVID into the national spotlight and laid the groundwork for the organization's ongoing mission of honoring COVID victims and demanding justice for bereaved families. Read the full op-ed in The Washington Post.