In the wake of George Floyd’s murder by the Minneapolis police on May 25, protests around the nation (and around the world) began May 26 and continue to this day.
Based on common sense as well as the rationale provided in this article, one would expect there to be a rise in COVID-19 cases. However, given that it may take several weeks from the time someone is infected with SARS-CoV-2 to the development of symptoms to seeking healthcare to waiting for public health data to be updated, I will examine the numbers again in a week or two to see if we can detect a bump in the COVID-19 case counts beyond the baseline rates which were already on the rise before the protests began. I support the protests and hope that any related increase in COVID-19 cases will be below the limit of detection.
UPDATE 7/1/2020: An interesting research paper demonstrates that the Black Lives Matter protests were not associated with an increase in COVID-19 cases and in fact shows that in cities with protests, social distancing behavior actually increased—people spent more time at home on average.
No comments:
Post a Comment