Here’s the problem with the “blame the protesters” COVID excuse: if that were the cause here, we’d see equivalent spikes in NYC, DC, Chicago, & other urban areas. We don’t. The outbreaks are exclusively occurring in TX, FL, AZ, GA, LA, MS—states that opened ahead of the curve.

As many have correctly noted, the word “exclusively” here misstates reality. CA has also seen a spike in cases & LA opened a bit later than the others. However, the point still holds—the predominant majority of the boom in cases so far is in opened states, not protest hubs.

Last point on this: many noting protests occurred in the outbreak states, too (e.g., Atlanta; Houston)—but this was part of my point. If some states with protests saw spikes, but others didn’t—then the protests can’t fully explain the spike. Early open most unites the set.