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China's big question after ending "zero-COVID" rules: How many have died?

Feb 7, 2023
David struggled to help his 83-year-old father before he died of COVID. Will his father's death be counted in China's official toll?
Hundreds of millions of people in China were infected within weeks of the abrupt end to "zero-COVID" rules, experts say. Above, patients are cared for by relatives and medical staff in the atrium of a busy hospital on Jan. 13 in Shanghai.
Kevin Frayer/Getty Images

For workers in the funeral industry, an unprecedented year

Mar 2, 2021
A Houston funeral director describes the pain of seeing so many deaths, sometimes more than one in a family.
Business increased at Leal Funeral Home in the Houston area, along with distress.
Florian Martin

Funeral services in the age of COVID-19: "You have no idea what it's like"

Apr 3, 2020
The things that can make funerals cathartic aren’t possible right now.
Due to a surge in deaths caused by the Coronavirus, hospitals are using refrigerator trucks as makeshift morgues. Above, medical workers remove a body from a refrigerator truck outside of the Brooklyn Hospital on March 31.
Stephanie Keith/Getty Images

Funeral home fraud rose in 2014, FTC probe finds

May 25, 2015
Rules prevent sale of unneeded items. Directors association says its complicated.

Black-owned funeral homes face existential challenge

Nov 4, 2014
As black neighborhoods change, funeral directors are struggling to adapt.
Dwayne Bickham, an attendant at Bowman and Young who has worked there since he was 17.
Lewis Wallace/WYSO

More Americans going online to find cremation urns

May 8, 2014
Online businesses that sell cremation products are thriving.

Keeping the funeral business alive

Mar 6, 2014
Philadelphia Magazine reporter Sandy Hingston says changing culture in America is killing the business of death.

For public good, not for profit.

Far-flung relatives now watch funerals online

Feb 22, 2013
Turns out online funerals aren’t just for celebrities. More and more families across the U.S. are looking at them as a way to cut costs, and include more friends and relatives.