Read on Twitter
I was under the impression part of my friends on the right firmly believed, “facts don’t care about your feelings.” Which is why the “but, the protests!” retort to covid outbreaks in some states is so terribly lame. A thread pointing out the facts about outdoor protests & covid:
If protests, that have occurred in every corner of the country, were a major problem we should see spikes across the country. We’re not. We’re seeing positivity rates rise in places that were not hard hit in the spring & opened up quicker.
https://twitter.com/covid19tracking/status/1277729936963338240?s=21 https://twitter.com/covid19tracking/status/1277729936963338240
https://twitter.com/covid19tracking/status/1277729936963338240?s=21 https://twitter.com/covid19tracking/status/1277729936963338240
Which is a big deal since the DC - Boston corridor was the hardest hit part of the country. With coronavirus clearly still lingering, you’d think if protests were a problem we’d be seeing spikes in positively rates again in the NE too.
Nope. https://www.npr.org/sections/coronavirus-live-updates/2020/06/24/883017035/what-contact-tracing-may-tell-about-cluster-spread-of-the-coronavirus
Nope. https://www.npr.org/sections/coronavirus-live-updates/2020/06/24/883017035/what-contact-tracing-may-tell-about-cluster-spread-of-the-coronavirus
Even more specifically, let’s talk about cities hard hit in the spring *and* who had big protests. New York was the epicenter in many ways. Verdict?
Nope https://www.politico.com/states/new-york/albany/story/2020/06/24/new-york-city-reports-no-protest-related-upticks-in-covid-19-1294370
Nope https://www.politico.com/states/new-york/albany/story/2020/06/24/new-york-city-reports-no-protest-related-upticks-in-covid-19-1294370
Philly had some famously large protests too. Verdict?
Nope https://www.inquirer.com/health/coronavirus/covid-coronavirus-pennsylvania-new-jersey-protests-demonstrations-death-reopen-20200615.html
Nope https://www.inquirer.com/health/coronavirus/covid-coronavirus-pennsylvania-new-jersey-protests-demonstrations-death-reopen-20200615.html
What about Minneapolis which had some notable covid problems and some big, sustained protests?
Nope https://abcnews.go.com/US/minnesota-sees-rise-covid-19-cases-tied-protests/story?id=71393938
Nope https://abcnews.go.com/US/minnesota-sees-rise-covid-19-cases-tied-protests/story?id=71393938
Ok, what about some areas not hit hard but where coronavirus has been percolating the longest. How about Seattle?
Nope https://komonews.com/news/local/fewer-than-1-of-seattle-protesters-test-positive-for-coronavirus
Nope https://komonews.com/news/local/fewer-than-1-of-seattle-protesters-test-positive-for-coronavirus
The Bay Area?
Nope https://www.kqed.org/science/1966378/no-coronavirus-spike-from-black-lives-matter-protests-experts-say
Nope https://www.kqed.org/science/1966378/no-coronavirus-spike-from-black-lives-matter-protests-experts-say
It’s literally not a trend. Simply saying, “well protests happened so that’s the cause” doesn’t hold up to scrutiny because big protests happened in places that had had bad outbreaks...and no spike. https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/peteraldhous/black-lives-matter-protests-coronavirus-no-surges
You know who is spiking? Parts of the country that weren’t hard hit in the spring and opened earlier...and where weather is hot so people are more likely to be congregating inside with AC and no masks
Source: http://worldometers.info from earlier this evening
Source: http://worldometers.info from earlier this evening
You could even argue, hey, well Los Angeles had big protests, right? Yep, very true. They were also less impacted than the Bay Area by the early part of the outbreak...and much like other southern climes opened the wrong kind of places to soon
https://twitter.com/tripgabriel/status/1277772305758924800?s=21 https://twitter.com/tripgabriel/status/1277772305758924800
https://twitter.com/tripgabriel/status/1277772305758924800?s=21 https://twitter.com/tripgabriel/status/1277772305758924800
Maybe you’re still something of a skeptic, it couldn’t be just bars & restaurants (and house parties & other indoor gatherings), could it?
Yeah, it could.
https://twitter.com/thegarance/status/1276523853011996672?s=21 https://twitter.com/thegarance/status/1276523853011996672
Yeah, it could.
https://twitter.com/thegarance/status/1276523853011996672?s=21 https://twitter.com/thegarance/status/1276523853011996672
There’s a reason Govs & local leaders in currently spiking states are shutting down bars & all but admitting it was a bad choice to open them. FL, AZ, TX...even in Boise we shut down bars again last week based on an emerging spike & related contact tracing https://idahonews.com/news/coronavirus/central-district-health-news-conference-rise-cases
Has there been coronavirus spread because of protests? No doubt. But if it was significant the common ingredient of spiking states wouldn’t be open bars, indoor dining, etc...it’d be protests too. And it’s not like DeSantis, Abbot, Ducey, etc. would hesitate to say so if true.
The lesson: outdoor activity, especially with a mask where you can’t social distance, is *way* safer than indoors, especially without a mask.
Which is something we sure as shit need to figure out heading into the fall.
Which is something we sure as shit need to figure out heading into the fall.
