Tips for reducing the risk of spreading the coronavirus in a mass gathering, from public health experts.
Tips for reducing the risk of spreading the coronavirus in a mass gathering, from public health experts.
As protesters take to the streets in dozens of US cities to mourn the death of George Floyd, resist police violence, and demand justice, many are wondering whether it’s possible to participate safely with the Covid-19 pandemic still spreading and taking lives.
On social media, there’s been a lot of discussion of the intersecting risks: how protesters risk retaliation from police, risk violence at the hands of counterprotesters, and risk Covid-19 infection, which they could then spread to others. And many have judged the protesters harshly for taking all of these risks.
But looming above it is the long history of police violence as a wretched public health crisis of its own.
As the basketball legend and writer Kareem Abdul-Jabbarwrote in the LA Times, “African Americans have been living in a burning building for many years, choking on the smoke as the flames burn closer and closer. Racism in America is like dust in the air. It seems invisible — even if you’re choking on it — until you let the sun in. Then you see it’s everywhere. As long as we keep shining that light, we have a chance of cleaning it wherever it lands.”
And protesters are considering the risks in their decision to go out. As August Nimtz Jr., who joined protests in Minneapolis on Tuesday, told Time, “I’m a 77-year-old African-American male.
