How Dangerous Is It to Protest During a Pandemic?
With protests over the police killing of George Floyd spreading throughout the country, public health officials are concerned that these large gatherings could trigger another type of spread: an increase in COVID-19 cases. The demonstrations began on Tuesday in Minneapolis, where Floyd was killed, and as of Saturday, May 30th, have taken place in more than 30 cities around the United States, including New York City, Chicago, Detroit, Columbus, Dallas and Los Angeles — some of which have been hotspots for the virus.
It has been nearly three months since the country started shutting down and restricting non-essential travel in an attempt to control the highly infectious virus. Without a vaccine or cure for COVID-19, public health measures like social distancing and wearing face masks in public have been our primary tool and containment strategy. And while some states have begun the process of reopening, most are still at the stage where large gatherings like protests are potentially dangerous — especially given the number of people who may have unknowingly already contracted the virus.
“Given the fact that there is likely a large group of individuals who are asymptomatic, and given that the activity — in this case, protesting — doesn’t lend itself to practicing social distancing, there are certainly concerns about COVID transmission,” Dr. Barun Mathema, assistant professor of epidemiology at the Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health tells Rolling Stone. “This is especially the case when there are altercations with law enforcement which, needless to say, are very troubling to see.”
According to Dr. Amesh A. Adalja, an infectious disease expert and senior scholar at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security, from a public health standpoint, a mass gathering is always going to be a concern when it comes to the spread of viruses like SAR-CoV-2. “The virus can take advantage of any kind of interaction — a protest or rock concert or whatever it might be — that facilitates the transmission,” he tells Rolling Stone.
Of particular concern to Adalja is the yelling and shouting that goes on at protests, which he says creates more of the droplets through which the virus spreads. “It really is going to depend upon how socially distant these individuals are, but I do think we have to be worried about any kind of mass gathering spreading the virus in the era of COVID-19,” he says. “We know that the virus is going to be with us until there is a vaccine, and any type of social interaction where people are within six feet of each other is going to be an opportunity for the virus to infect others and spread between people.”
https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-features/george-floyd-protest-covid-19-pandemic-safety-1008067/
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