Silent Carriers of Virus Packed Cheek to Jowl While ‘Protesting’
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The mayor of Atlanta, one of the dozens of US cities hit by massive protests, has a message for demonstrators: “If you were out protesting last night, you probably need to go get a COVID test this week.”
As more beaches, churches, mosques, schools, and businesses reopened worldwide, civil unrest in the US over repeated racial injustice (like George Floyd’s death) is raising fears of new coronavirus outbreaks in a country that has more infections and deaths than anywhere else in the world. And it’s not just in the US—London hosted a large anti-racism protest Sunday that certainly violated government social distancing rules.
Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms warned that “there is still a pandemic in America that’s killing black and brown people at higher numbers.”
“We have two crises that are sandwiched on top of one other,” Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey said. Health experts fear that silent carriers of the virus could unwittingly infect others at protests where people are packed cheek to jowl, many without masks, many chanting, singing, or shouting.
The virus is dispersed by microscopic droplets in the air when people cough, sneeze, sing or talk. “Whether they’re fired up or not, that doesn’t prevent them from getting the virus,” said Bradley Pollock, chairman of the Department of Public Health Sciences at the University of California, Davis.
The US has seen over 1.7 million infections and nearly 104,000 deaths in the pandemic, which has disproportionately affected racial minorities in a nation that does not have universal health care.
Edited via Newser.
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Prejudice gets a bad rap. Prejudice is that little voice that tells you, last time you did that, you got burned so don’t do that!</I
It sickens me that after 50 years we're back to this and the same human garbage is taking advantage of tragedy and spitting in the faces of brave and dedicated people by burning down a place where people live and work and try to survive.
But it's more than that this time. All those out in the street are likely to carry death home with them. In some places 70% of the fatalities are African American. Stay home. There are other ways to get heard.
I may get accused of being prejudiced for saying this, but if you go out and do high-risk things, then don’t come back crying that you are being treated unfairly or discriminated against. There are consequences to your actions.
I won’t accuse you, because if I do I would have to accuse me, because I agree with you.