Up to two weeks ago, we were consumed with the ongoing war with COVID-19 and this pandemic was the single most important subject in America. COVID-19 was March, April, and May Madness rolled into one. The difference in opinions and perceptions led to varied “re-opening” approaches and there was much debate on those approaches. There were states which had great restrictions in place despite of their COVID-19 data on hospitalizations and deaths while others were “off to the races” on re-opening. In several states, the imposed limitations were challenged by organizations and these lawsuits were heard by State Supreme Courts and US Supreme Court with varied outcomes. These decisions further cast doubts on the “science” behind the imposed orders by state governors and city mayors. There was no real explanation on how you could do X but not Y just because Y is Y.
Then with one ill-fated event, the American spotlight was re-focused on the tragic death of George Floyd and the ensuing protests on racial inequality. For the last two weeks, we have seen large gatherings of protesters across cities in America continually. Practically speaking, social distancing rules were discarded. You cannot have proper social distancing with thousands of people, especially in staredown situations between protesters and law enforcement personnel. Even the government leaders who imposed the strictest “lock-down” measures were seen interacting with protesters and leading the protest in some cases. Americans do understand the heinous nature of George Floyd’s death and the over-flowing of emotions that had to be expressed. At the same time, if the coronavirus is as dangerous to the general public as some government leaders had communicated, then the protests should be limited for health and safety reasons. Was this not their battle cry—“do this not for yourselves but for those in your community, do this to protect others”? There have been THOUSANDS of protesters; this is not a small number. The words “it is not safe” could not be arbitrarily assigned to one form of gathering over another. In addition, the protests engage first responders who are essential workers. One of the guiding principles in our overall mitigation strategy is to protect first responders because they interact with the general public on a regular basis. Our social distancing guideline and mitigation strategy were thrown out-of-the window with the protests. This is the fact!
With the co-occurrence of the pandemic and the protest, the ONLY conclusion we can draw is the coronavirus presents a danger not on the level that some government leaders want you to believe. If the danger they communicate is really there, then they are putting thousands of people at risk including themselves. You can call politicians many things but they are not so reckless to put their own lives at risk. People’s actions speak louder than their words; we know where people really stand based on their conducts and behaviors.
For the record, the states that re-opened the earliest (late April)—Georgia, Florida, Texas, and Colorado—all have decreasing new deaths (see below).
