What One Million COVID Dead Mean for the U.S.’s Future

The country is about to reach an unthinkably grim milestone. Nearly 200,000 children have lost parents, many more elderly have been killed, and family well-being has been ripped apart. These deaths have wide-ranging consequences. The effects on children may be the longest-lasting. In the U. S., an estimated 243,000 children have lost a caregiver to COVID—including 194,000 who lost one or both parents—and the psychological and economic aftershocks can have lifetime negative impacts on their education and career.