46,000 Kids Without Parents and Eviction Risks Rising — Where’s the Help?
As life returns to "normal," tens of thousands of kids, and millions of working parents, are struggling in the aftermath of COVID-19.
The post-pandemic era is in sight. Restaurants are reopening. Sports venues are operating at full capacity. State of emergency declarations are expiring. Vaccination is slowly but surely reversing many of the abnormalities of pandemic life, but the rush to return to normal is already leaving millions of the most vulnerable Americans behind, many of whom are children, and working families.
All of this misery did not simply disappear the moment the FDA signed off on a vaccine. Nor will it be over when vaccination numbers reach a particular threshold. And when examining the lasting damage wrought by COVID-19, as the Kaiser Health Network did, it quickly becomes clear that the burden of COVID is still felt keenly by families and kids.
46,000 Kids Have Lost Parents
the estimated 46,000 childrenNBC News reports
The financial hit of losing a parent is also hard and not just because two-income households suddenly become one-income households. Kids lose insurance that their now-deceased parent had through their job. And many are also unaware that they’re eligible for Social Security survivor benefits—because the onus is on the grieving family and not the government to make sure that money gets to where it belongs.
Life Expectancy Has Fallen At a Rate Not Seen Since World War II
symptoms522,368 more Americans died
Poverty, and Inequality, Has Grown in the Pandemic
an analysis from McKinsey & CoExpanded federal unemployment benefitsforce people back into jobs that pay poverty wages
Pandemic Related Job Losses Have Many Without Work
job losses were felt most acutely by womenaccording to the National Women’s Law Center
We Need to Do More to Help Families And Kids — But Where’s the Help?
This article was originally published on