Why didn't Black Lives Matter protests spread COVID-19? Because everyone else stayed home, study suggests

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Why didn't Black Lives Matter protests spread COVID-19? Because everyone else stayed home, study suggests
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The net effect was that, on average, more people stayed home during the week they were held than the previous week, even accounting for all the protesters

The protests themselves seem to be the perfect environment to spread a virus. It’s difficult to socially distance, people are chanting and singing and, in some cities, police officers deployed tear gas, which induces coughing fits. All those activities help spread the droplets that transmit the virus.

The researchers used cellphone data to track people’s behaviour, so they can only guess as to why people stayed home during the protests. It could be an effect of traffic congestion caused by marches spilling into the streets, or the fact that many businesses closed, causing employees and customers to stay home. It could also be that people were concerned about contracting COVID-19 after media reports about the potential for spread of the virus.

According to the researchers, who only studied protests in the United States, there were 281 rallies in the 315 largest U.S. cities, with nearly half of them accompanied by reports of violence. Protests that were larger or that were accompanied by greater violence increased the tendency of residents to stay home, although the presence of media reports about violence tended to have a larger effect.

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