‘No going back to normal’: 43,000 US kids lost a parent to COVID

As many as 43,000 children in the U.S. are estimated to have lost at least one parent to COVID-19 by February, a study published in JAMA Pediatrics found, resulting in a “dramatic” 20 percent increase in parental bereavement compared to a typical year. These losses are not only tragic for children, but can also lead to mental health problems, challenges in school and economic disparities that last for years, said Emily Smith-Greenaway, the study’s co-author and an associate professor of sociology and spatial studies at the University of Southern California. “People are coping with these losses in a more isolated, economically precarious year for so many families,” Smith-Greenaway told Al Jazeera.