The scale and complexity of pandemic-related grief have created a public health burden that could deplete Americans’ physical and mental health for years, leading to more depression, substance misuse, suicidal thinking, sleep disturbances, heart disease, cancer, high blood pressure and impaired immune function. “Unequivocally, grief is a public health issue,” said Prigerson, who lost her mother to COVID-19 in January. “You could call it the grief pandemic.”... Many of those grieving say celebrating the end of the pandemic feels not just premature, but insulting to their loved ones’ memories. “Grief is invisible in many ways,” said Tashel Bordere, a University of Missouri assistant professor of human development and family science who studies bereavement, particularly in the Black community. “When a loss is invisible and people can’t see it, they may not say ‘I’m sorry for your loss,’ because they don’t know it’s occurred.”