‘That virus doesn’t care.’ Protesters need to self-quarantine for 14 days, experts say

Health officials and city leaders in Chicago are urging people who protested the in-custody death of George Floyd to consider self-quarantining for 14 days to fight the possible spread of coronavirus, WMAQ reports.

“That’s because COVID-19 is caused by a virus, and that virus doesn’t care about what’s going on in the city,” said Public Health Commissioner Dr. Allison Arwady, according to the station.

Mayor Lori Lightfoot of Chicago echoed those concerns, The Chicago Sun-Times reported.

“We worry about the thousands of people that have been out in the streets over the last few days,” Lightfoot said, according to the publication. “Please, in exercising your First Amendment rights or if you are out for any other reason, you have now put yourself at risk and we need you to isolate yourself.”

In Pennsylvania, a man arrested at a protest Monday told a judge that he has tested positive for coronavirus, though police have not confirmed that, PennLive reported.

And in Miami, protester Rosa Jimenez Cano called the densely packed rallies “kind of a tinderbox” for spreading the virus, the Associated Press reported. She plans to self-quarantine.

Health experts have warned that tightly packed protesters, some of whom are not wearing masks, risk spreading coronavirus, McClatchy News previously reported.

“Shouting and cheering loudly, that does produce a lot of droplets and aerosolization that can spread the virus to people,” said Dr. James Phillips, a physician and assistant professor at George Washington University Hospital, CNN reported.

He urged protesters to wear face masks and follow social distancing guidelines as much as possible, according to the network.

“There is still a pandemic in America that’s killing black and brown people at higher numbers,” said Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms, according to NBC News. She urged protesters to seek out coronavirus testing.

But some protesters said the issue of police brutality is too important to worry about a virus, the Associated Press reported.

“It’s not OK that in the middle of a pandemic we have to be out here risking our lives,” said Spence Ingram in Atlanta, according to the publication. “But I have to protest for my life and fight for my life all the time.”

Health experts, however, took a different view, according to the AP.

“Whether they’re fired up or not, that doesn’t prevent them from getting the virus,” said Bradley Pollock, chairman of the Department of Public Health Sciences at the University of California, Davis, according to the publication.

National protests erupted after video emerged of a Minneapolis police officer kneeling on Floyd’s neck as he begged for air during his May 25 arrest on suspicion of fraud.

Floyd, a black man, later died. Officer Derek Chauvin, who is white, has been arrested and charged with third-degree murder and manslaughter in the death. He and three other Minneapolis police officers also have been fired.

Some of the protests, which have spread from Minneapolis across the nation, have been blamed for clashes with police, fires and other unrest.

The violence and looting involve much smaller groups at mostly peaceful gatherings, authorities say. The vast majority of the protesters across the nation have been “peaceful demonstrators calling for change,” law enforcement officials told ABC News.

Dozens of cities have enacted curfews and the National Guard has been mobilized in several states. President Donald Trump has threatened to use the military to quell violence.

More than 6.4 million cases of the COVID-19 virus have been confirmed worldwide with more than 380,000 deaths as of June 3, according to Johns Hopkins University. The United States has more than 1.8 million confirmed cases with more than 106,000 deaths.

The World Health Organization has declared coronavirus a global pandemic. In the United States, President Trump has declared a national emergency.

This story was originally published June 3, 2020 at 10:34 AM with the headline "‘That virus doesn’t care.’ Protesters need to self-quarantine for 14 days, experts say."