More than 400 people who died of COVID were secretly interred in a mass grave on the outskirts of the city of Iquitos. Families are demanding a proper burial for their loved ones.
Thomas Laqueur, author of The Work of the Dead, discusses the ways people have dealt with human remains over the course of history. Modern cemeteries, he says, are byproducts of the French Revolution.
Religious leaders must play a role in stopping the outbreak in this West African country, the cleric says. And that will mean changing not only attitudes but funeral practices.
