When COVID Deaths Are Dismissed Or Stigmatized, Grief Is Mixed With Shame And Anger

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Stephanie Rimel looks at a photo of her brother Kyle Dixon, who died of the coronavirus on Jan. 20, 2021 at the age of 27. She says that during Kyle’s illness and after his death, some acquaintances and relatives made insensitive comments, or denied the reality of the pandemic.

Brett Sholtis / WITF

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Brett Sholtis / WITF

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Kyle Dixon poses for a photo with his one-year-old niece during a cruise to the Bahamas with his family on November 22, 2019.

Lauren Dixon

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Lauren Dixon

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A welcome sign marks the edge of Lanse, Pennsylvania, a rural community in Clearfield County where Kyle Dixon lived.

Brett Sholtis / WITF

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Kyle Dixon was in intensive care at Geisinger Medical Center in Danville, Pennsylvania before he died from COVID-19 on January 20, 2021.

Stephanie Rimel

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Stephanie Rimel

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Mike Kuhn stands outside his funeral home in West Reading, Pennsylvania. Kuhn says some families who lose loved ones to COVID-19 want to share that information, while others want to keep it secret.

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Jennifer Dixon holds a framed flag displaying the Pennsylvania coat of arms. Kyle Dixon worked at a state prison, and his coworkers gave the family the flag after he died of COVID-19.

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Kyle Dixon’s grave is located on a family plot at Woodside Cemetery on Spring Valley Road, near West Decatur, PA.

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Kyle Dixon’s grave is located on a family plot at Woodside Cemetery on Spring Valley Road, near West Decatur, PA.

Eric Kayne/Eric Kayne

The family’s motivation for carving that into the headstone? It’s simple, Stephanie Rimel says: Long after they are gone, they want the truth to endure.

«We want to make sure that people know Kyle’s story, and that he passed away from the virus.»

This story comes from NPR’s health reporting partnership with WITF and Kaiser Health News (KHN).

• bereavement
• COVID denialism
• disenfranchised death
• disenfranchised grief
• COVID-19
• anti-vaccine