This month’s edition of LIGHT magazine carries an array of articles on human dignity, including an article I wrote, “Children of COVID-19.” It highlights the measurable impacts of the pandemic upon vulnerable children in the US and worldwide. Here’s the first portion of the article, and you can read the full article at the magazine online HERE.
Among the most tragic ironies of COVID-19 is the disparity between the direct and the indirect impact of the virus upon children. The former has been remarkably modest, the latter catastrophic.
A study in July’s volume of the Lancet estimates that 1.1 million children1 were orphaned by COVID-19 in the first year of the pandemic—losing at least one parent or custodial grandparent. In every country surveyed, more fathers were lost than mothers—at least by double. In some countries, the ratio was 5-to-1.
The rates at which children were orphaned varied widely between countries. For example, at the time of the study, only 1 in every 1,666 children in England and Wales had lost a parent or primary caregiver. That number was 1 in every 286 children in Mexico; 1 in 196 in South Africa; and 1 in 98 in Peru.
Differences in the development levels of countries, including their health systems and economies, no doubt played a part in these disparities. But the causes of variances defied easy explanation. Some of the starkest differences came between countries sharing many apparent similarities. For example…
Read the full article HERE.