While my mind hasn’t quite turned to fictional pursuits, I have started to think about the aftermath of Covid.

Actually, I don’t think the word ‘aftermath’ is the correct term. That would indicate that the situation happens after the main situation is over. It’s the bill that needs to be paid. In truth, this situation began shortly after Covid did and continues on with vaccinations.

Of course, on this gloomy March day, I’m thinking about death. Moreover, what happens to the bodies, and who pays for their care.

From a quick search, the number of confirmed deaths from Covid is 974,830.
577,599 are since Biden took office, in case anyone wanted to know.

We also know that most Covid deaths are those who are elderly and have co-morbidities. The Black and Latinx communities were hit hard. Those of lower income were hit the hardest primarily because they had a harder time self-isolating and had jobs that may not have been able to transition to a work-at-home status.

While I couldn’t find any information on the income levels of the 974,830 who died, I’m guessing the majority were below the poverty level. — Keep in mind that that number * does not * count people who have died naturally, suicides, or through accidents. Those numbers are in addition to the nearly one million who we’ve lost.

That’s a lot of bodies in just two years.
— A little off topic — There are roughly 21,000 funeral homes in the USA. Someone do the math for me. How many bodies would each funeral home have to process to keep up with the demand? How many funerals and cremations, typically, can be done in a day?

I’m getting to the gist of my post here.

A vault burial tends to be favored, I think, in the USA. This is where there’s a vault in the ground to place a casket. The body is embalmed and there’s some sort of a showing. It’s nothing too fancy. It’s just a time for friends and family to respectfully gather to say goodbye to a loved one.

These types of funerals tend to run about $8000 and up. Additions, like special coffins, a slide show, and live music, can drastically increase the price.

Cremations, which I think are gaining popularity, run about $1200. This doesn’t include a plot. The ashes are probably put into some box. Urns and other options will, of course, probably place this option to be $2000 and up.

According to federal poverty guidelines, an income of $27,750 ($2300 per month) is considered poverty for a family of four.

If it’s just a two-person family, like a mother and child, the income of $18,310 ($1525 per month) is the poverty line. You get the idea, right?

So, if there’s a household of a mother and three children and the mother dies from Covid, the children would have to somehow come up with between $1200 to $8000 (low estimates) to bury their mother out of an income of $27,750.

If it’s a single mother and child, the burial costs remain the same although their income is drastically lower than the family of four.

–> Of course, it’s important to keep in mind the ongoing expenses. Through additional searches, the average rent for a family of four is about $1200. The average for groceries is $200 per week. This also doesn’t take into account assistance like Section 8 and SNAP. I’m trying not to dig too deep into this line of thought. I’m just poorly playing with numbers.

Anyways…

You would think that there would be some sort of government assistance for those who died from Covid. There were stimulus checks, rent negation, and other ways to make living ‘easier.’ But, for those who had family members who died and had to cover the costs, I don’t think that the government did anything. At least, there wasn’t anything publicized and broadcasted.

If there was something, I don’t know about it. If there isn’t, I don’t think that it would have been hard to initiate. For example, during national disasters… Hurricane Katrina comes to mind… FEMA and other government agencies sprang to action to recover the dead, identify, and provide help with burials.

But Covid, which could be considered Hurricane Katrina over two years, the U.S. government is relying on small businesses — as most funeral homes are locally owned and operated — to take up the slack. And, if they can’t because of being overwhelmed, there’s the possibility that they could be munched into a larger funeral home network.

Additionally, the way other countries handled the situation seemed to be daemonized. For example, China… I think it was China… had mass cremations. I remember an article about how black smoke came from a crematorium because of the number of bodies being incinerated. Other places… Russia (?) had mass graves.

While these methods are not graceful, exactly, they can keep families from incurring burial costs that they probably can’t afford.

The families and friends can morn in their own ways. Although, given Covid, it would probably be on Zoom or some such. But, they wouldn’t have that financial outlay that could cripple them even further than just the loss of a person and their income.

I guess my questions and concerns are:

– Why didn’t the government support funeral homes?
Maybe they could have subsided them in some way per Covid burial to help provide assistance. This would allow the cost of the burial/cremation to drop or be negated and the family wouldn’t have that extra burden.

– Why are mass cremation and mass graves daemonized?
Why are news sources covering these methods from other countries so little and, when they do, do so in an unfavorable way? Covid is a global emergency, right? These methods may be unorthodox but so is a global pandemic. If anything, these could have been seriously considered as viable options and help reduce the financial strain on the living.

– Why (from what I can tell) the CARES Act (Covid relief fund) didn’t have special provisions set aside to help bury the dead?

– Why didn’t or doesn’t the American population seem to care about this very important factor of the pandemic?
I know there’s a lot going on. But, the number of deaths and infections was rammed down our throats every day for two years. Collectively, we know that those who died are mostly from poor families, Blacks, and Latinx. Again, more information was crammed into every waking moment. Being a mostly (?) a Christian nation, I would have thought that someone would have made this a rallying point. If not, at least a sincere talking point.

I’m basing this post on a lot of assumptions. Like, I’m assuming that there wasn’t any government assistance for the burial of Covid victims. There are also a ton of tangents I could have wandered into, but didn’t because I wanted to write this in one evening and, preferably, finish before PQ’s daily reset.

I am fortunate.
All of the people I care for, save one, have received at least two jabs. So far, their blood hasn’t clotted and they haven’t had any ill effects. I haven’t experienced the death of someone from Covid or the vaccination. I don’t have the answers. Hence, my questions and concerns.

After two years of Covid disrupting our lives, our futures, and personal growth, this is a topic that shouldn’t be overlooked.