PRI Associate Ashton Verdery was quoted in this story about the impacts of Covid-19 by The Guardian.
Verdery created with colleagues a bereavement multiplier that estimates how many people in the US have lost a close relative to Covid. Given the paucity of historical demographic data for Hispanic and Asian Americans, they based their calculations on population statistics for white and Black Americans though they are confident their conclusions apply broadly to all US residents.
Verdery was taken aback by the findings. The number affected by Covid bereavement was much larger than he had expected.
Verdery and the team concluded that for every person who dies of Covid in the US there are almost nine people in their immediate kinship group left bereaved. For every grandparent who dies there are on average four grandchildren mourning them, every parent two children, every sibling two brothers or sisters left behind.
Read the complete article here.