A new study provides a touching reminder of the pain caused by the covid-19 pandemic. He estimates that nearly 40,000 children in the United States lost at least one parent due to viral illness in February of this year. The study also found that more than 100,000 children would have lost a parent if the virus had followed its unrestricted course.
There have been previous attempts to account for the mourning caused by pandemic-related deaths in the United States, now more than half a million. A recent survey in March, for example, found that almost one in five Americans personally knew someone who had died of covid-19. But this study, Published at JAMA Pediatrics, it seems to be the first to focus specifically on children.
“There is a narrative that children are not very affected by the virus, as they do not tend to get as sick and have lower mortality than older adults,” study author Rachel Margolis, sociologist and demographer at Western University in Ontario , Canada, told Gizmodo by email. “However, children are very much affected by the death of family members and, therefore, in this article, we examine the frequency with which children lose a parent.
Margolis and his colleagues built on previous research aimed at assessing the impact of any individual death on family members. In this case, they tried to estimate the average number of children under 18 who would be connected to a single death by covid-19, based on what we know about the population of the United States and deaths related to the pandemic to date. They also compared what they found with the estimated number of children who would lose a parent in a year without a pandemic.
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On average, the authors calculated that each death of covid-19 in the United States would likely leave 0.078 children without their parents. This increases rapidly when you consider how many people died in the United States because of the pandemic.
Between February 2020 and February 2021, his best estimate found that 37,300 children lost at least one parent to covid-19, based on the approximately 479,000 deaths documented during that time. It is estimated that the majority of these children were in their teens. When they took into account the excess of deaths – deaths above the annual average that represents the direct and indirect number of covid-19 – they estimated that 43,000 children had lost a parent to the pandemic. Compared to a normal year, they also calculated that the pandemic had led to a 17.5% to 20.2% increase in parental deaths.
“For comparison, the September 11, 2001 attacks left 3,000 children without parents,” wrote the authors. “The burden will become heavier as the death toll continues to rise.”
In fact, since February of this year, about 70,000 Americans have died from covid-19, according to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. And while our highly effective vaccines are soon to turn the tide against the pandemic, hundreds of people still die every day, while hospitalizations and new daily cases remain relatively high. However, things could have been worse. At worst, where vaccines did not arrive and the pandemic was able to kill 1.5 million people in the United States before collective immunity was achieved, the authors estimated that probably 116,900 children would have lost a parent.
Even when the pandemic is finally over, there will still be those left behind to mourn the people lost to it. Another study last year, conducted by some of the same authors behind this new research, found that each covid-19 death in the United States leaves an average of about 9 family members behind. And, as with the pandemic itself, these losses will disproportionately affect some groups more than others. In this current study, black children were responsible for 20% of parents’ deaths, despite representing only 14% of children in general.
“Our research shows that children are facing different types of risk than those faced by older adults, but they are not immune,” said Margolis. “In addition, many adults have lost their parents or other family members. Grief has serious consequences, especially for children, who are at high risk for mental health problems and economic stress. “
Although the elderly remain the most vulnerable to die from covid-19, the great unrestrained pandemic nevertheless claimed the lives of many younger Americans. According to CDC Data, more than 100,000 people under the age of 65 died from it. Given their results, the researchers argue that more is done to help people, especially children, most directly affected by all these deaths.
“My hope is that when we get out of the pandemic, we will take the grieving process seriously. I would love to see more governments offering bereavement leave, ”said Margolis. “In addition, for specific children who have lost a parent, we need to find out who these children are, connect them to local services and help them obtain short and long-term support. We know that losing a parent is difficult at the best of times. It is even more difficult when we cannot come together and support each other ”.
This article was updated with comments from one of the study’s authors.