Mass protests after George Floyd’s death in police custody have sparked concerns that the gatherings may lead to a second wave of coronavirus infections.
The protests that started in Minneapolis at the end of May, in response to the death of George Floyd while in police custody, have quickly ballooned into mass demonstrations across the U.S. As the movement has grown, so too have concerns from elected officials and public health experts that the protests are fertile ground for a second wave of the deadly coronavirus pandemic that has already claimed nearly 110,000 American lives.
Public health experts are concerned that large, congested crowds create perfect conditions for the virus to be transmitted. Shouting and singing, which are common at protests, have been shown to hasten the spread of the virus via infected droplets. Though black people make up 13 percent of the U.S. population, they account for 24 percent of coronavirus deaths in which race is known, meaning they are dying at a rate nearly two times higher than their population share, according to the COVID Tracking Project.
Blackstock and others, including the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, have cited underlying social and economic conditions pervasive in many African-American communities that are likely at play. The CDC says that factors such as racial residential segregation, lower access to health care, and working in lower pay essential industries that often don’t provide paid sick leave are some of the possible reasons for the racial disparity in COVID-19 deaths and hospitalizations.
“For me, the issue of sparking a mass-infection is sort of a picky one,” Cyrus says of criticism that the George Floyd protests could cause a second wave of coronavirus. “Because we’ve already been putting people in situations where the risk of a second wave is all ready to happen.” Blackstock also points to some police tactics that increase the risks protesters are already taking when they choose to march.
“It’s a delicate balance, because the reasons for demonstrating are valid, and yet the demonstration itself puts one at an additional risk. So the only thing we can do as public health officials is to keep warning people, ‘Be careful.’ If you are going to go out, please make sure you wear a mask and you keep the mask on at all times.”
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