Collective Trauma and Commemoration — A Moment of Silence, Please

This article explores the lingering psychological and societal effects of the Covid-19 pandemic in the United States, framing it as a collective trauma that continues to influence mental health, memory, and community wellbeing. The authors discuss chronic stress responses and uneven losses experienced across marginalized groups. Drawing from social psychiatry and historical examples, the article critiques the nation’s fragmented grief response and proposes secular public rituals such as a national moment of silence as a means to collectively process loss and restore emotional cohesion. Such commemoration, they argue, can help transition lingering pandemic distress into respectful remembrance and shared resilience.

This article explores the lingering psychological and societal effects of the Covid-19 pandemic in the United States, framing it as a collective trauma that continues to influence mental health, memory, and community wellbeing. The authors discuss chronic stress responses and uneven losses experienced across marginalized groups. Drawing from social psychiatry and historical examples, the article critiques the nation’s fragmented grief response and proposes secular public rituals such as a national moment of silence as a means to collectively process loss and restore emotional cohesion. Such commemoration, they argue, can help transition lingering pandemic distress into respectful remembrance and shared resilience.