A new study provides a heartbreaking memory of the pain caused by the covid-19 pandemic. An estimated 40,000 children in the United States have lost at least one parent due to viral disease in February this year. The study also found that more than 100,000 children would have lost a parent if the virus had been allowed to run its course without restrictions.
There have been previous attempts to count the files the pain caused by pandemic-related deaths in the United States, which already exceeds half a million. A recent survey this March, for example, Found that almost one in five Americans knew someone personally 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 affected as much by the virus as they do not tend to get sick and have lower mortality than older adults,” says study author Rachel Margolis, a sociologist and Demographer from Western University of Ontario, Canada, told Gizmodo in an email. “However, children are severely affected by the deaths of family members, so in this paper we have examined how often children lose a father.
Margolis and colleagues relied on previous research aimed at measuring the impact of any death on family members. In this case, they tried to estimate the average number of children under the age of 18 who would be connected to a single death by covid-19, based on what we know about the American population and the deaths linked to the pandemic so far. They also compared what they found with the estimated number of children who would lose a father in a non-pandemic year.
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On average, the authors estimated that every death from covid-19 in the U.S. would likely leave 0.078 children without parents. This adds up quickly if you consider how many people have died in the United States due to the pandemic.
Between February 2020 and February 2021, its best estimate found that 37,300 children lost at least one parent due to covid-19, according to the approximately 479,000 documented deaths during that time. It is estimated that most of these children were adolescents. When they took into account the excess deaths (deaths above the annual average representing the direct and indirect toll of covid-19), they estimated that 43,000 children had lost a father due to the pandemic. Compared to a normal year, they also calculated that the pandemic had caused a 17.5% to 20.2% increase in parental deaths.
“By comparison, the September 11, 2001 attacks left 3,000 children without parents,” the authors wrote. “The burden will increase as the death toll continues to rise.”
In fact, since February, about 70,000 more Americans have died of covid-19, seconds in disease control and prevention centers. And while our highly effective vaccines should soon change the course of the pandemic, hundreds of people continue to die every day, while hospitalizations and new daily cases remain relatively high. Still, things could have been worse. In one of the worst cases where vaccines had not arrived and the pandemic was able to kill 1.5 million people in the U.S. before herd immunity was reached, the authors estimated that probably 116,900 children would have lost a pare.
Even once the pandemic is over, there will still be people mourning the people who have been lost. Another study conducted last year by some of the same authors who have driven this new research, Found that every death by covid-19 in the US leaves on average about 9 family members. And, as with the pandemic itself, these losses will disproportionately affect some groups more than others. In this current study, black children accounted for 20% of parental deaths, although they accounted for only 14% of children overall.
“Our research shows that children experience different types of risk than older adults, but they are not immune,” Margolis said. “In addition, many adults have lost parents or other family members. There are serious consequences of grief, especially for children at high risk of mental health and financial stress.
While older people remain the most vulnerable to dying from covid-19, the largely uncontained pandemic has claimed the lives of many young Americans. In accordance with CDC data, more than 100,000 people under the age of 65 have died. Given their findings, researchers advocate that more be done to help people, especially children, those most directly affected by all of these deaths.
“My hope is that as we get out of the pandemic we will take the mourning process seriously. I would love to see more governments offering mourning leave, “Margolis said.” Also, when it comes to specific children who have lost a parent, we need to find out who these children are, connect them to local services. and help them get support in the short and long term. We know that losing a parent is difficult in the best of times. It’s even harder when we can’t get together and support each other. “
This article has been updated with comments from one of the study’s authors.