This is a worrying milestone in what officials call “the hidden pandemic”. This includes over 180,000 children in the United States.
These figures are based on new modeling published by The Lancet Child & Adolescent Health. It estimates orphanhood during the pandemic that will last through October 2021. The study found that more than 5.2million children had lost a parent to COVID at that time. This number has continued to rise since.
A ” real time calculator” by the study’s authors estimated that over 180,000 children in the United States have lost a parent or caretaker to the pandemic. The American toll is higher than in all other large countries, except for India and Mexico which suffered severe losses due to the virus’s deadly waves.
“When we started this project, there were approximately 140 million orphaned children around the world. That’s 8 million children a year that are orphaned. We now know, based on our updated estimates that these numbers are increasing by around 30% per year,” Susan Hillis, a senior researcher at Oxford University and the lead author of the paper, says.
Hillis was the lead researcher of the study, while Hillis worked for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s COVID-19 Response. She updated initial modelling that they had published in July 2021 with other organizations.
Although the researchers were able refine their estimates using new data that documented the deaths of the pandemic, they warn that global modeling is still “drastically underestimated.”
“For example, WHO estimates that accurate data on COVID-19 deaths is limited in Africa, and the actual estimates are likely to exceed what’s currently being reported,” Dr. Julie Unwin, Imperial College London, stated in a release.
The study includes deaths caused by COVID-19 and additional deaths indirectly due to the pandemic like “decreased accessibility to health services”.
According to the most recent tally, more than 5.9 million deaths from COVID-19 have been reported worldwide. The CDC has more than 930,000 deaths from the disease in the United States, but total excess deaths have exceeded 1 million since the outbreak.
The study’s authors also recalculated their original modeling and added estimates of orphanhood based on age groups. They found that children aged 10 and over were the most likely to lose a caregiver globally. The study found that 81,100 children aged 10 and over in the United States had experienced a death during the study period. This is also higher than the number of children younger age.
Hillis stated that it was crucial to update the numbers due to the rapid increase in child mortality. It was also critical to expand the type of data we were providing so that all countries around the globe would have the information they need to include care for children in their COVID response plans.
Hillis and her colleagues also led research that was published December. This study examined the state of orphanhood in the U.S. from June 2021 to June 2021. The study found that orphanage rates varied by race and ethnicity. American Indian and Alaska Native children were the most affected.
It is unclear how these disparities could translate into longer-term inequalities. This adds to the myriad of concerns already raised and exacerbated by advocates about the impact of the pandemic on the welfare of American kids and their mental health .
Federal data published November showed that 2020 saw a decline in the number of children in foster care. However, officials warned that the effects of the pandemic were “not yet clear”. The Annie E. Casey Foundation funded one report that found a rise in racial disparities within one foster care program while overall children declined.
The letter was sent by COVID Collaborative last month to President Biden. It urged the White House “to shape a comprehensive response” for children who have lost their parents to the pandemic. The group, which included a former White House COVID-19 representative, warned that the pandemic has “disproportionately affected communities and populations of color” and those least able to respond.
Hillis’ was previously known to enable the Biden administration prioritize studying and addressing this issue. This will add another pillar to COVID-19 efforts in the country, both domestically and internationally. She stated that the U.S. could provide a coordinated response among all government agencies and organizations.
Hillis stated, “In the history PEPFAR, I have helped support as America people, through generosity of the American taxpayer. About 7 million children have been left orphaned in Africa by AIDS and have really needed economic, educational, and psychosocial support to survive, recover, and thrive.”
Hillis said, “It’s ironic we have roughly the exact same number of kids now that we have yet do anything to help.”