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To the Editor:

The crisis of grieving following Covid-19 is very much upon us, appearing in forms less readily recognized. Millions in our country are grieving the loss of loved ones, and millions more are now impaired with the physical or psychological effects, grieving the loss of stable health. We are all grieving the more abstract losses — loss of familiar routines, of schooling and carefree childhoods, of socialization, of breathing safely in public and of embracing loved ones.

While the end of the pandemic is thankfully in sight, an investment in mental health services — just as we have done for vaccine development and economic stimulus — is essential to providing relief for a traumatized nation.

David Fox
Los Angeles
The writer, a doctor and rabbi, is director of crisis intervention, trauma and bereavement support services at Chai Lifeline.

To the Editor:

Therapists, clergy and other helping professions have been busy throughout the year helping families affected by the pandemic. Training for grief work is not new; it is an established field with many capable professionals and hospice-trained bereavement professionals throughout the country.

Establishing yet another federal office, as the Op-Ed suggests, hardly seems to me an efficient way to respond to the losses, which will vary in communities. We know that communities of color have been hard hit. Do we need a federal office to know that we must staff some of our schools with more social workers, counselors and/or teams of trained professionals to run support groups for children and teens?