School reopening advocates and apologists invariably invoke the impact of #remotelearning on children's mental health. What they do not talk or write about is the shattering impact on a young person of a parent's sudden death due to #COVID19. 1/
"The Burden of Bereavement," published in the American Journal of Psychiatry in September 2018 - before the pandemic - examined the long-term effect of parental death. "The loss of a parent," it wrote, "is one of the most stressful events that a child can experience." 2/
The study established that the loss of a parent is for children an emotionally catastrophic event with long-term consequences. Over a 7 year period, bereaved children suffered "depression, post traumatic stress disorder, and functional impairment." 3/
The #pandemic has made sudden parental death a trauma experienced by uncounted tens of thousands of children. It is a tragic experience that will profoundly affect the course of their lives. 4/
School closings and remote learning certainly create problems, especially in a country like the US where social support systems are minimal. But the impact of school closings on children's mental health are nowhere near the impact of losing a parent to COVID19. 5/
The emotional impact will be all the greater if a child fears that he or she - having been infected in school -may have transmitted the fatal virus to a parent. Sending kids to school in pursuit of "herd immunity" is a social crime. The only viable policy is #ZeroCovid.
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