Suddenly, Public Health Officials Say Social Justice Matters More Than Social Distance

Source: Politico | June 4, 2020 | Dan Diamond

For months, health experts told Americans to stay home. Now, many are encouraging the public to join mass protests.

For months, public health experts have urged Americans to take every precaution to stop the spread of Covid-19—stay at home, steer clear of friends and extended family, and absolutely avoid large gatherings.

Now some of those experts are broadcasting a new message: It’s time to get out of the house and join the mass protests against racism.

“We should always evaluate the risks and benefits of efforts to control the virus,” Jennifer Nuzzo, a Johns Hopkins epidemiologist, tweeted on Tuesday. “In this moment the public health risks of not protesting to demand an end to systemic racism greatly exceed the harms of the virus.”

“The injustice that’s evident to everyone right now needs to be addressed,” Abraar Karan, a Brigham and Women’s Hospital physician who’s exhorted coronavirus experts to use their platforms to encourage the protests, told me.

It’s a message echoed by media outlets and some of the most prominent public health experts in America, like former Centers for Disease Control and Prevention director Tom Frieden, who loudly warned against efforts to rush reopening but is now supportive of mass protests. Their claim: If we don’t address racial inequality, it’ll be that much harder to fight Covid-19. There’s also evidence that the virus doesn’t spread easily outdoors, especially if people wear masks.

The experts maintain that their messages are consistent—that they were always flexible on Americans going outside, that they want protesters to take precautions and that they’re prioritizing public health by demanding an urgent fix to systemic racism.

But their messages are also confounding to many who spent the spring strictly isolated on the advice of health officials, only to hear that the need might not be so absolute after all. It’s particularly nettlesome to conservative skeptics of the all-or-nothing approach to lockdown, who point out that many of those same public health experts—a group that tends to skew liberal—widely criticized activists who held largely outdoor protests against lockdowns in April and May, accusing demonstrators of posing a public health danger. Conservatives, who felt their own concerns about long-term economic damage or even mental health costs of lockdown were brushed aside just days or weeks ago, are increasingly asking whether these public health experts are letting their politics sway their health care recommendations.

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  • Discussion
  • Consistent June 4, 2020 at 6:46 pm #39839

    Consistent June 4, 2020 at 6:46 pm #39840

    Consistent June 4, 2020 at 6:49 pm #39841

    Consistent June 4, 2020 at 6:50 pm #39842

    Consistent June 4, 2020 at 6:52 pm #39843

    Consistent June 4, 2020 at 6:54 pm #39844

    Consistent June 4, 2020 at 11:34 pm #39861

    Consistent June 5, 2020 at 4:37 pm #39884

    Consistent June 5, 2020 at 4:39 pm #39885

    Consistent June 5, 2020 at 4:40 pm #39886

    Consistent June 5, 2020 at 4:41 pm #39887

    Consistent June 5, 2020 at 6:06 pm #39898

    EVERYDAY June 5, 2020 at 10:58 pm #39908

    I’m waiting for a huge uptick in COVID 19 cases following these riots. At that time the governors will try to close all businesses and force us all back into isolation again.

    I wish them luck with that.

    Consistent June 5, 2020 at 11:20 pm #39909

    Consistent June 5, 2020 at 11:23 pm #39910

    Consistent June 6, 2020 at 11:37 am #39917

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