UMB News Support UMB's Increasing Efforts to Deal with the COVID-19 Pandemic During this important period, please consider supporting UMB's critical vaccine research and development, advancing its work in human virology, and donating to critical emergency funds especially designed for specific students in need. We truly appreciate your gifts in this time of great need. April 23, 2021 Grief, the experts tell us, is not an emotion, like sadness, but a process by which we come to terms with loss. Seen through that lens, in different ways and for different reasons, we are all grieving right now. Certainly, the families and friends of the 570-thousand Americans who have died in this pandemic are suffering the greatest loss. Many of them were unable even to provide comfort in sickness or to be present at the end of life. And the need for social distancing has prevented or at least impeded the group rituals and practices like vigils for the dying and funerals that provide guidance and reassurance for survivors. Funerals held via Zoom, while not uncommon today, can’t offer the same depth of emotional support.