Template talk:COVID-19 pandemic in the United States

Notable deaths

What are the criteria to include someone in the notable deaths section? This list is going to grow rapidly. Natureium (talk) 01:08, 31 March 2020 (UTC)

• At this point, having a notable Wikipedia page is a good measure, however, there is the question of how to organize/order them. Should it be in alphabetical order or ordered by death date? Should they be sorted by location of death or by general categories (i.e. artists, scientists, government). I’m leaning towards the former on both questions, but I’m interested in what others think. Mcrsftdog (talk) 16:35, 8 April 2020 (UTC)
• There is no criteria, and no justification. ALL biographies should be removed from this and EVERY nation's coronavirus pandemic template, and the templates should not be placed on anyone who died from the disease. The scope and purpose of the template should be clearly defined and deployed in only a handful of closely related articles. Navboxes are not buckets to shoehorn tangentially related detritus, they work best when there is a well-defined set in which all elements in the navigation box logically connect to each other. They should not be entrances into trivial endless rabbit holes. We don't list every notable person who has died from AIDS at {{HIV and AIDS}}, nor do we plaster the template on every biography who has contracted or died from the disease. Formal guidance is at WP:NAVBOX and Wikipedia:Navigation template. --Animalparty! (talk) 06:35, 9 April 2020 (UTC)

Animalparty (talk · contribs) If that is what you think you can start a discussion, but notable deaths from coronavirus are relevant to the template. This appears to pass WP:NAVBOX based on consensus through editing. Most believe this information to be relevant. Please use discussion to achieve consensus not reverting. Valoem ^{talk contrib} 15:09, 9 April 2020 (UTC)

Consensus means little because people have lost sense of perspective due to the pandemic, recentism, and a rush to create and categorize as many sub articles as possible. WP:NAVBOX states:

Navigation templates are particularly useful for a small, well-defined group of articles; templates with a large number of links are not forbidden, but can appear overly busy and be hard to read and use. Good navboxes generally follow most or all of these guidelines:

• All articles within a template relate to a single, coherent subject
• The subject of the template should be mentioned in every article.
• The articles should refer to each other, to a reasonable extent.
• There should be a Wikipedia article on the subject of the template.
• If not for the navigation template, an editor would be inclined to link many of these articles in the See also sections of the articles.

While the articles directly about the pandemic make sense to include, as they tightly and logically relate to each other, I think it is bad taste, undue weight, and misguided to slap this template on assorted biographies that have absolutely nothing in common besides how they spent the last days of their life. Besides manner of death, what logical, well-defined set includes Helène Aylon, Terrence McNally, Kevin Duffy, etc., and why, should a supposed encyclopedia draw readers from these biographies into dozens of articles that are otherwise exclusively abut pandemics? See my similar similar concerns about including biographies in {{Alt-right_footer}}. --Animalparty! (talk) 16:35, 9 April 2020 (UTC)

@Animalparty: This template and its inclusion of notable deaths was based on Template:2020 coronavirus pandemic in the United Kingdom and replicated in Template:2020 coronavirus pandemic in France, Template:2020 coronavirus pandemic in Canada, etc. I personally do not think a template is the best place to list deaths. We should in fact uses a list per List of HIV-positive people which is a featured list, unless someone is willing to create such a list, the template is the only place to link associated deaths. If you create a list I would support it as a better method than the current template. Valoem ^{talk contrib} 18:23, 9 April 2020 (UTC)

I support User:Animalparty in that this template should not become a laundry list of deaths of people who otherwise have no relation to each other than geography; that's not what navboxes are for. The list is already overly long and will only grow longer. Opencooper (talk) 20:25, 12 April 2020 (UTC)

Broader discussion

While the notable deaths have currently been removed from this template, I have initiated broader discussion. Please see a discussion regarding this template and several related templates at Wikipedia talk:WikiProject COVID-19#Coronavirus pandemic templates and notable deaths. Thank you, --Animalparty! (talk) 22:03, 14 April 2020 (UTC)

The Lincoln Project

J4lambert, I don't think criticizing Trump's handling of the pandemic response qualifies for inclusion in this nav temp. I can't image how many inclusions that would precipitate. —valereee (talk) 18:06, 5 May 2020 (UTC)

Notable people

The "Notable people" section appears to be focused on officials directly responsible for federal and (in some cases) state responses to the pandemic. Should any local officials like Sara Cody also be listed?

Category:Officials associated with the 2019–20 coronavirus pandemic seems to have a similar purpose as the "Notable people" section of this template, but there is a proposal to delete that category. If the category is deleted, it seems unlikely that there would ever be a category that corresponds to this section of the template, making it more difficult for readers to find local officials associated with the government response from general articles such as COVID-19 pandemic in the United States.

 – Minh Nguyễn ^💬 21:02, 5 May 2020 (UTC)

Delete or purge heavily. Navboxes should contain closely associated articles, not be arbitrary waste bins of people who happened to be in office when the pandemic struck. Similarly, notable deaths should be purged again, see the discussion above. --Animalparty! (talk) 17:56, 23 May 2020 (UTC)

Why is Home Movie: The Princess Bride, etc. on here?

This template clearly needs some cleanup. We're not going to list every film released during the pandemic just since it was released during the pandemic. {{u|Sdkb}} ^talk 04:15, 16 July 2020 (UTC)

Because Wikipedia is the free encyclopedia that anyone can edit. And mediocrity rules. --Animalparty! (talk) 05:15, 11 July 2021 (UTC)

Semi-protected edit request on 1 July 2022

Could the scientist Kizzmekia Corbett please be added to the navbox listing under Scientists? 108.18.207.147 (talk) 01:54, 1 July 2022 (UTC)

 Done Happy Editing--IAmChaos 22:09, 9 July 2022 (UTC)