Cities With Black Lives Matter Protests Have Not Seen Spikes In COVID-19

Cities With Black Lives Matter Protests Have Not Seen Spikes In COVID-19

Protests haven’t led to a COVID-19 surge

The widespread protests in the United States against racism and police brutality that have gone on for more than three weeks do not seem to have led to spikes in COVID-19 infections. Researchers analysed mobile-phone location data from 315 of the largest US cities and found that the wider population tended to stay at home more, leading to an overall increase in social distancing. Scientists propose that wearing masks also helped, and that young protesters who might have been infected but not have severe symptoms would be missed out in the official COVID-19 numbers. “The fact is that we will just never know for sure, because there’s too many moving parts,” says epidemiologist Andrew Noymer.
Buzzfeed News | 6 min read
Reference: National Bureau of Economic Research working paper (not peer reviewed)