Name: Will Dallas’ police protests spark a surge of COVID cases? Not likely, say experts
Brand: dallasnews.com
SKU: dallasnews-com-75
Availability: OnlineOnly

critic

Will Dallas’ police protests spark a surge of COVID cases? Not likely, say experts

preview

4:46 PM on May 30, 2020 CDTMass gatherings like the Hajj, the Olympics and music festivals are known to be fertile soil for outbreaks of influenza and other viral illnesses. But what about street protests, including those occurring in Dallas and in dozens of cities across the country?Outdoor protests pose less of a risk than large indoor gatherings, said Dr. John Carlo, a former medical director of Dallas County’s health department who now runs a local network of HIV clinics.Early outbreaks of COVID-19 were traced to multi-day professional gatherings, including a medical conference in Boston in early March that experts to more than 100 cases. Those meetings placed people in confined indoor spaces for long hours.Mass protests, where contact with others is transitional and takes place outdoors, are “probably pretty limited in terms of the risk,” he said.“We believe there is a time-sensitive factor that plays into the amount of virus particles you inhale or introduce,” he added. “If the contact is only for a fleeting moment — less than five minutes — the risks are fairly low. If it is over an extended amount of time within less than 6 feet of someone infectious, that is high risk.”Related:Public health experts also take into account what people are doing while they are in close contact. “Obviously, coughing and sneezing produce aerosols, but probably loud talking and shouting also do,” he said. Protesters could reduce the production of those aerosols by wearing masks, which many in Dallas are doing, he said.A recent analysis of cell phone data from people who attended anti-lockdown protests in Michigan, Florida and other states, suggests the potential of spreading COVID-19 to previously unaffected parts of the country.Protesters came from far away and returned to many rural areas, said Dr. Rob Davidson, an emergency room physician and executive director of the Committee to Protect Medicare, which reported the data. The organization lobbies for broader access to affordable health care and has argued for a more vigorous anti-pandemic response from the Trump administration.This week’s protests, focused on police brutality and the killings of unarmed black people, fall into a different category, he said.Related:“If protesters are mostly from a big city urban environment that are already exposed to this, it may have less of an effect overall,” he said. He added that African-Americans, who have been more likely than any other racial or ethnic group to be hospitalized or to lose their lives to COVID-19, have already suffered disproportionately. “I think people will weigh that and take a calculated risk, and I can’t fault them for that.”Get email alerts on breaking news stories as soon as they happen.By signing up you agree to our

4:46 PM on May 30, 2020 CDTMass gatherings like the Hajj, the Olympics and music festivals are known to be fertile soil for outbreaks of influenza and other viral illnesses. But what about street protests, including those occurring in Dallas and in dozens of cities across the country?Outdoor protests pose less of a risk than large indoor gatherings, said Dr. John Carlo, a former medical director of Dallas County’s health department who now runs a local network of HIV clinics.Early outbreaks of COVID-19 were traced to multi-day professional gatherings, including a medical conference in...

public

dallasnews

Anna Kuchment

dallasnews.com

Credible

Speculation

Anecdotal Evidence

Generalization

Stacking the Deck

Appeal to Authority

Straw Man

Slippery Slope

Emotional Appeal

Red Herring

False Dilemma

Illogical

Moral Equivalency

Ad Hominem

Correlation w/o Causation

Semantics

Begging the Question

Faulty Analogy

Non Sequitur

Bandwagon

Dogmatism

Failing Occam's Razor

Biased

Pure Opinion

Hit Piece

Racial Bias

National Bias

Religious Bias

Financial Incentive

Political Agenda

Gender Bias

Misused Image/Video

Study Misinterpreted

Mistake

Misused Term

Science Misrepresented

Factual Error

Satire

Surface Level

Lack of Reliable Sources

Sensational

Not Credible

Investigative

Balanced

Well Sourced

Great Context

sports

entertainment

U.S.

international

business

technology

science

culture

politics

media

health

Will Dallas’ police protests spark a surge of COVID cases? Not likely, say experts

No article scores yet.

CRITIC REVIEWS

PUBLIC REVIEWS