Covid-19

The COVID-19 pandemic, caused by the novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2, resulted in widespread grief of various forms. As of August 9th 2023, according to the World Health Organisation, there were 6,954,336 deaths globally from COVID-19, including 228,542 confirmed deaths in the UK. Each of these deaths is said to have left an average of nine people bereaved (Verdery, et al., 2020). Moreover, deaths from other causes surpass 50 million globally each year, so a great many bereavements occurred in the midst of the pandemic. The grief people experienced was often affected by measures introduced to control the spread of the virus, such as lockdowns, travel restrictions, and social distancing protocols. Many people were unable to say goodbye to loved ones or to partake in funerals and other collective mourning rituals, and bereavements occurred against a backdrop of wide-spread loss and disorientation. For many people, grief's usual trajectory was disrupted during the pandemic, and it has been suggested we ought to expect higher incidences of pathological or prolonged forms of grief (e.g., Gesi, et al., 2020)

Moreover, beyond bereavement, many who did not personally lose a loved one during the pandemic still experienced significant loss. People lost opportunities, security, and social connections, and encountered a great deal of uncertainty about the future. Important events were cancelled, and businesses, workplaces, and educational institutions closed. A question arises about whether some such non-bereavement losses might have been grieved, rather than just being the targets of, say, sadness or disappointment.

‘Grief: A Study of Human Emotional Experience’ began in January 2020, only shortly before the World Health Organisation declared a global pandemic in March 2020. We thus conducted research into the impact of these unfolding events on people’s experiences of grief as they occurred.

Project Research

For research into the ways that the social restrictions imposed during the pandemic impacted people’s experiences of grief see:

Ratcliffe, M. (2022). Grief Worlds: A Study of Emotional Experience. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. (Chapter 7).
Ratcliffe, M. (2022). 'Phenomenological reflections on grief during the COVID-19 pandemic'. Phenomenology and the Cognitive Sciences (online first).
Ratcliffe, M. & Byrne, E. A., (2022). The Interpersonal and Social Dimensions of Emotion Regulation in Grief. In Allan Køster & Ester Holte Kofod. Eds. Grief Experience: Cultural, Existential and Phenomenological Perspectives. London: Routledge, pp. 84–98.

For exploration of the various non-bereavement losses of the pandemic and whether they count as experiences of grief, specifically, see:

For discussion of loss of meaning, boredom, and temporal disruption during the pandemic see:

Hughes, E. (2023). 'Meaninglessness and Monotony in Pandemic Boredom'. Phenomenology and the Cognitive Sciences. (online first).

Matthew Ratcliffe was also involved in the Pandemic Experience Survey. This questionnaire was disseminated to participants in the UK, Japan, and Mexico, and explored people's experiences of social distancing. One section of this survey asked participants about their experiences of grief. A second questionnaire with the same questions was issued a year later to participants who had agreed to do a follow-up, providing longitudinal data. These surveys are described in the following data reports:

Several of the articles listed above were published as part of the Phenomenology and the Cognitive Sciences special issue ‘Emotions of the Pandemic: Phenomenological Perspectives’, edited by Matthew Ratcliffe and Luna Dolezal.

Grief and the Pandemic:
Watch our film collaboration with Calling the Shots productions for the Arts and Humanities Research Council supported by BBC Arts Culture in Quarantine. The film was part of the Animated Thinking series of films, based on the work of UK academics, launched in November 2020. The film was based upon the research of Matthew Ratcliffe, Louise Richardson, and Becky Millar.

See also this short podcast 'Grief and the Covid-19 Pandemic', released in June 2020 by project co-investigator Louise Richardson:

Since we began our research into Covid-19 there has been much academic research into grief during the pandemic beyond our project, as well as copious popular articles exploring these issues. Listed below are some useful publications and resources.

External Academic Articles

Adiukwu, F., Kamalzadeh, L., Pinto da Costa, M. et al. (2022) The grief experience during the COVID-19 pandemic across different cultures. Ann Gen Psychiatry, 21, 18.

Borghi, L. & Menichetti, J. (2021), 'Strategies to Cope With the COVID-Related Deaths Among Family Members', Frontiers in Psychiatry, 12, 1–4.

Delor, J.P.M., Borghi, L., Cao di San Marco, E., Fossati, I. and Vegni, E. (2021), 'Phone follow up to families of COVID-19 patients who died at the hospital: families’ grief reactions and clinical psychologists’ roles', International Journal of Psychology, 56, 498–511.

Firouzkouhi, M., Alimohammadi, N., Abdollahimohammad, A., Bagheri, G. and Farzi, J. (2021), 'Bereaved Families Views on the Death of Loved Ones Due to COVID 19: An Integrative Review', Omega-Journal of Death and Dying, 1–16.

Gallagher, A. (2021), 'Reflections on a COVID death: Naming a family’s pain and reparation', Nursing Ethics, 28 587–589.

Kumar, R. M. (2021) 'The Many Faces of Grief: A Systematic Literature Review of Grief During the COVID-19 Pandemic', Illness, Crisis & Loss, 1–20.

McDuffie, D.L., Kouchi, K., Dorman, H., Bownes, E., Condon, S.E. and Crowther, M.R. (2021), 'Grief, COVID-19, and the South: Considerations and Recommendations', Omega-Journal of Death and Dying, 1–14.

McLaughlin, D. (2021), 'Micro-Loss; Expanding Our Vocabulary to Describe Grief during the Time of Covid', Journal of Social Work in End-of-Life & Palliative Care, 17, 124–126.

Menzies, R., Neimeyer, R., & Menzies, R. (2020). 'Death Anxiety, Loss, and Grief in the Time of COVID-19.' Behaviour Change, 37(3), 111–115.

Pearce, C., Honey, J. R., Lovick, R., et al. (2021). ‘A silent epidemic of grief’: a survey of bereavement care provision in the UK and Ireland during the COVID-19 pandemic. BMJ Open.

Selman, L. (2021), 'Covid grief has cracked us open: how clinicians respond could reshape attitudes to bereavement', BMJ, 374, 1–4.

Seyede Salehe, M., Shahbazi, N., Taban, M., Alimohammadi, A. and Shati, M. (2021). Mourning During Corona: A Phenomenological Study of Grief Experience Among Close Relatives During COVID-19 Pandemics. Omega-Journal of Death and Dying. 1–22.

Singer, J., Spiegel, J. A., & Papa, A. (2020). 'Preloss grief in family members of COVID-19 patients: Recommendations for clinicians and researchers.' Psychological Trauma: Theory, Research, Practice, and Policy, 12(1), 90–93.

Verdery, A. M., Smith-Greenaway, E., Margolis, R., & Daw, J. (2020). Tracking the reach of COVID-19 kin loss with a bereavement multiplier applied to the United States. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 117(30), 17695-17701.

Wallace, C. L.; Wladkowski, S. P.; Gibson, A. & White, P. (2020). Grief During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Considerations for Palliative Care Providers. Journal of Pain and Symptom Management.

West, K., Rumble, H., Shaw, R., Cameron, A. and Roleston, C. (2021), 'Diarised Reflections on COVID-19 and Bereavement: Disruptions and Affordances', Illness, Crisis & Loss, 1–17.

Yardley, S., & Rolph, M. (2020). Death and dying during the pandemic. BMJ. 369 :m1472

Pathological grief and mental health
Bertuccio, R. F. & Runion, M.C. (2020), Considering Grief in Mental Health Outcomes of COVID-19, Psychological Trauma: Theory, Research, Practice, and Policy, 12, 87–89.

Diolaiuti, F., Marazziti, D., Beatino, M. F., Mucci, F., & Pozza, A. (2021). Impact and consequences of COVID-19 pandemic on complicated grief and persistent complex bereavement disorder. Psychiatry Research, 300, 113916.

Eisma, M. C., Tamminga, A., Smid, G. E., & Boelen, P. A. (2021). Acute grief after deaths due to COVID-19, natural causes and unnatural causes: An empirical comparison. Journal of affective disorders, 278, 54-56.

Eisma, M. C., Boelen, P. A., & Lenferink, L. (2020). Prolonged grief disorder following the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. Psychiatry research, 288, 113031.

Gesi, C., Carmassi, C., Cerveri, G., Carpita, B., Cremone, I. M., & Dell’Osso, L. (2020). Complicated grief: What to expect after the coronavirus pandemic. Frontiers in Psychiatry, 11, 489.

Jordan, T. R., Wotring, A. J., McAfee, C. A., Polavarapu, M., Cegelka, D., Wagner-Greene, V. R., & Hamdan, Z. (2022). The COVID-19 pandemic has changed dying and grief: Will there be a surge of complicated grief?. Death studies, 46(1), 84-90.

Lee, S. A., & Neimeyer, R. A. (2022). Pandemic Grief Scale: A screening tool for dysfunctional grief due to a COVID-19 loss. Death Studies, 46(1), 14–24.

Rui M. Joaquima, Pintoa, A.L.C.B., Guatimosimd, R.F., de Paulaa, J.J., Souza Costaa, D., Paim Diaze, A., da Silvaf, A.n.G., Pinheiroj, M.I.C., Serpai, A.L.O., Mirandac, D.M. and Malloy-Diniza, L.F. (2021), 'Bereavement and psychological distress during COVID-19 pandemics: The impact of death experience on mental health', Current Research in Behavioral Sciences, 2.

Sherman A. Lee & Robert A. Neimeyer (2020). Pandemic Grief Scale: A screening tool for dysfunctional grief due to a COVID-19 loss, Death Studies.

Disenfranchised grief
lbuquerque S., Teixeira, A. M., & Rocha, J. C., (2021). 'COVID-19 and Disenfranchised Grief.' Frontiers in Psychiatry, 12(638874), 1-4.

Albuquerque, S., Teixeira, A. M., & Rocha, J. C. (2021). COVID-19 and disenfranchised grief. Frontiers in Psychiatry, 12, 638874.

Resilience
Walsh, F. (2020), 'Loss and Resilience in the Time of COVID-19: Meaning Making, Hope, and Transcendence', Family Process, 59, 898–911.

Zhai, Y., & Du, X. (2020). Loss and grief amidst COVID-19: A path to adaptation and resilience. Brain, behavior, and immunity, 87, 80–81.

Social restrictions
Feder, S., Smith, D., Griffin, H., Shreve, S.T., Kinder, D., Kutney-Lee, A. and Ersek, M. (2020), '“Why Couldn’t I Go in To See Him?” Bereaved Families’ Perceptions of End-of-Life Communication During COVID-19', The American Geriatrics Society, 69, 587–592.

Hernández-Fernández, C. and Meneses-Falcón, C. (2021), 'I can't believe they are dead. Death and mourning in the absence of goodbyes during the COVID-19 pandemic', Health and Social Care, 1–13.

Mortazavi, S. S., Assari, S., Alimohamadi, A., Rafiee, M., & Shati, M. (2020). 'Fear, Loss, Social Isolation, and Incomplete Grief Due to COVID-19: A Recipe for a Psychiatric Pandemic.' Basic and clinical neuroscience, 11(2), 225–232.

Schwartz, S. (2021), 'COVID-19, precarity and loneliness', Journal of Analytical Psychology, 66, 517–533.

Impact on different groups
Goveas, J. S., & Shear, M. K. (2020). Grief and the COVID-19 Pandemic in Older Adults. The American journal of geriatric psychiatry : official journal of the American Association for Geriatric Psychiatry, 28(10), 1119–1125.

Ishikawa, R. Z. (2020). 'I may never see the ocean again: Loss and grief among older adults during the COVID-19 pandemic.' Psychological Trauma: Theory, Research, Practice, and Policy, 12(1), 85–86.

Katz, N.T., McInerney, M., Ravindran, G. and Gold, M. (2021), 'Silent suffering of the dying and their families: impact of COVID-19', Internal Medicine Journal, 51, 433–435.

Rabow, M. W., Huang, C.-H. S., White-Hammond, G. E. and Tucker, R. O. (2021). 'Witnesses and Victims Both: Healthcare Workers and Grief in the Time of COVID-19.' Journal of Pain and Symptom Management, 62(3), 647–656.

Statz, T., Kobayashi, L., & Finlay, J. (2022). ‘Losing the illusion of control and predictability of life’: Experiences of grief and loss among ageing US adults during the COVID-19 pandemic. Ageing and Society, 1–24.

Weinstock L., Dunda D., Harrington H. and Nelson H. (2021) 'It’s Complicated—Adolescent Grief in the Time of Covid-19.' Frontiers in Psychiatry, 12, 638940.

Charities' Covid-19 Resources
Cruse Bereavement Care
The Good Grief Trust

Covid-19 and Grief