LOS ANGELES - A recent study published in the medical journal The Lancet estimates that more than 1.5 million children around the world lost at least one parent, custodial grandparent, or grandparent who lived with them due to a COVID-19-related death during the first 14 months of the pandemic.
Study authors say orphanhood is an overlooked consequence of the ongoing global pandemic and urge that responses to such a travesty must be a key part of addressing the problems created by the pandemic.
Traumatic experiences like the loss of a parent are also associated with an increase in substance use and mental health disorders, according to the National Institutes of Health which helped fund the study.