Selected Articles on the Impact of Covid-19 on Death Care and Funerals

During the early months as infection spread, particularly in New York City, the cracks in our systems were revealed through extensive reporting. We learned about families experiencing sudden death and what was and was no longer possible for home death care, memorialization, and gathering. These articles are a testament to the adaptation we underwent and continue to undergo as we grapple with both temporary and permanent changes to funerals as we have known them.

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• Media coverage of the impact of coronavirus on funerals during the early phase of the pandemic

The Pandemic Should Change the Way We Talk About Dying by Joel Rowe, The Atlantic, July 3, 2020
The Body Collectors of the Corona Virus Pandemic by Jonathan Blitzer, The New Yorker, April 22, 2020
Episode 21: Death Care in the Time of COVID 19 with Amy Cunningham, Death, et seq. with Tanya Marsh, April 19, 2020
13 Hours, 22 Bodies ​by Rich Shapiro, NBC News, April 19, 2020
Someone Has Died. That’s When Our Job Begins by Alexandra E. Petri, New York Times, April 16, 2020
This Is Going to Kill Small-Town America by David Gelles, New York Times, April 14, 2020
Seattle-Area Funeral Director Char Barrett on Funeral Planning During Pandemic (NPR, 4/13/20)
Coronavirus Is Changing The Rituals Of Death For Many Religions (NPR, 4/7/20)
‘It was quite intimate’: a tiny funeral for a big family man (The Guardian, 4/7/20)
We’re Going to See What Else the Word Funeral Can Mean by Jodi Kantor, New York Times, April 5, 2020
We Will Need New Ways to Grieve by Beth Waltemath, New York Times, April 4, 2020
New York considers loosening requirements for funeral directors as bodies pile up by Dana Rubenstein, Politico, April 3, 2020
How The Covid-19 Pandemic May Permanently Change Our ‘Good Death’ Narrative (Religion Dispatches, 4/2/20)
I’m a funeral director. The pandemic has made saying goodbye painfully lonely. by Char Barrett, Washington Post, April 1, 2020
No last embrace: A family said goodbye over FaceTime to both grandparents who died of coronavirus on the same day (Washington Post, 3/31/20)
I followed NYC deathcare workers as they collected the bodies killed by the coronavirus by Dave Mosher, Business Insider, March 31, 2020
What is a Home Funeral” How to Care for Sick or Deceased Loved Ones at Home During Coronavirus Pandemic by Khaleda Rahman, Newsweek, March 26, 2020
Grief, interrupted: Families delay funerals, watch burials from afar (KOIN, 3/26/20)
Coronavirus Means Funerals Must Wait by Kirk Johnson, New York Times, March 26, 2020
Virtual Memorials and No Hugs: The Funeral Industry Prepares for Coronavirus (Mother Jones, 3/23/20)
How Death Care Workers are Handling COVID-19 (Writer With a Scalpel, 3/22/20)
How can you grieve without a funeral? Families make heartbreaking choices (Los Angeles Times, 3/20/20)
Grief in the time of coronavirus: How will the way we mourn change? (The Globe and Mail, 3/21/20)
Funeral Homes, Families Ponder Deaths In The Age of COVID-19 (Kaiser Health News, 3/19/20)
‘A generation has died’: Italian province struggles to bury its coronavirus dead (The Guardian, 3/19/20)
​Burials and Funerals Under Covid-19 (Order of the Good Death, 3/18/20)
Coronavirus: US funerals move to live-streaming (BBC News, 3/17/20)