George Floyd: US Protesters Endanger COVID-19 “For Public Health” | News

Thousands of people were demonstrating, screaming, and coughing behind closed doors when they were hit by tear gas due to nationwide protests against police atrocities in the United States. This raises concerns about the spread of coronaviruses.

Experts say that racially differentiated police violence is a serious and neglected public health crisis for African-Americans, not only threatening their lives, but also developing stress-related diseases, from heart failure to cancer He says he is increasing the risk.

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It’s been more than a week since African-American George Floyd died after a white policeman knelt on his neck for a few minutes, causing a wave of protests across the country against institutional racism.

For Ebony Hilton, a doctor at the University of Virginia Hospital and herself black, the issue highlights what she calls two pandemic threats: COVID-19 and police atrocities.

“We expect to see spikes (in the case of coronaviruses) because we don’t have a social distance and unfortunately most people wear masks incorrectly,” she told AFP. It was

“Chile spraying and the resulting cough/nausea also increase the risk,” Hilton said. “In addition, COVIDs can spread through the eye drops and many don’t wear goggles.”

Law enforcement agencies have regularly fired tear-attractive pepper sprays and tear gas, the nerve agent that causes a fiery burning, to disperse the crowd.

On Monday, federal police shot rubber activists with rubber bullets and tear gas at Lafayette Park outside the White House to take a photo of President Donald Trump at a historic church that was damaged the night before. ..

Police are “public health threats”

Still, Hilton said it was important to contextualize the reasons why people are willing to accept these risks. A study conducted in 2019 found that black men were 2.5 times more likely to be killed by police than white men.

Frank Edwards of Rutgers University, the lead author of the paper, told AFP at the time, “We think there is ample evidence that police are a threat to US public health in the United States.”

Based on media reports and official data, Edwards and colleagues estimated one death from a police force for every 1,000 black male births.

Police violence is the leading cause of death in black men aged 20 to 29, immediately following cancer.

The problem is not only the famous news-making death, but also the psychological stress given to African-Americans who are continually targeted by the police.

“We know that chronic stress is directly linked to an increased risk of cancer formation, high blood pressure, diabetes, heart failure and obesity,” said Hilton.

A 52-year-old presenter from New York, Cav Manning makes one of the tens of thousands nationwide willing to endanger the coronavirus when he attended a protest in Brooklyn on Monday night. I’m sorry.

“What we saw is very disturbing and despite the COVID, we need to be here now, despite the fact that you can get infected,” he says I told him.

Emphasized precautions

The demonstration was due to the state’s partial resumption of the economy, with the number of new coronavirus deaths in the United States, one of the world’s hardest hit countries, continuing to decline even after peaking in mid-April.

Studies have linked warm summer months to a reduction in COVID-19 spread in temperate regions of the world.

Brandon Brown, an epidemiologist at the University of California at Riverside, said the expected risk of a COVID-19 infection would be reduced outdoors, but especially when people could not physically distance themselves when facing police. He said it would never be zero.

Protesters march down the street during a demonstration over George Floyd’s death in Washington DC [Samuel Corum/Getty Images/AFP]

“It’s important not only to protect yourself from COVID-19, but to wear a mask from state surveillance,” he stressed.

New York paramedic Robert Glatter added that the aerosols produced by the tear gas itself could act as a carrier to project the viral droplets into the crowd much deeper than other methods. It was

The combination of all these factors made public health professionals very nervous about the impact after a couple of weeks.

Moderator Manning said he and others were aware of the danger.

“But this is also happening for the health of the people.”