As Bloomberg reports, the Federal Emergency Management Agency has asked the Pentagon to hand over its 50,000-bag stockpile of military body bags for civilian use. However, it’s clear that the available supply won’t match the looming need for this particular item. So the Pentagon is already looking to buy additional bags. But even when it comes to this item, it’s not clear that the current manufacturer can meet the expected demand for the green nylon bags. Additional sources are likely to be required. Though, unlike ventilators or protective gear, companies are probably not going to be making PR announcements about how they’re switching over their production lines to make more body bags.

In any case, the need is certainly there. After all, the expected number of deaths in just the next three months will far exceed the American losses in Afghanistan, and Iraq, and in Vietnam, and in every military conflict back to World War II. And that’s if the outcome is at the low end of what’s being seen as a simplistic and optimistic model.

Right now, refrigerated trucks are idling at the doors of hospitals in New York and New Orleans and Detroit as the morgue space inside is overrun by the end result of COVID-19. On Wednesday alone, the Associated Press reported that FEMA sent an additional 85 refrigerated trucks to hospitals around New York City to serve as temporary morgues.

In this crisis, Americans are dying alone, families are unable to make arrangements, most funerals can’t be held, and mortuaries are another, usually invisible, part of the healthcare chain that is also facing crushing amounts of work and a desperate need for protective gear. Funerals and memorial services are a defining, emotional, and necessary part of American life and culture. They allow families to express their loss, to deal with grief, and to participate in ritual and community in ways that a deeply, vitally important. The breakdown of that process may not be as immediately visible, or instantly costly, as overrun emergency rooms and a lack of ventilators. But it also comes with tremendous cost.

In Spain, an ice rink was adapted into a makeshift morgue — and that was 9,000 deaths ago. In Iran, mass graves have been dug that are visible from space. In the United States, 85 refrigerated trucks are not the end of what’s coming, or the drastic actions that will be required. This crisis is changing how we deal with every aspect of life … including the end of it. And even more drastic measures on this front will be taken before the peak of this crisis has passed.