Public health specialists say protests could raise the odds that COVID-19 will spread

CINCINNATI (WKRC) – There are concerns from public health specialists that those who choose to participate in protests in recent days will cost us lives due to COVID-19.

Many are pleading with protesters to go home to reduce the danger the coronavirus will spread.

From Washington D.C. to Minneapolis to Cincinnati and to Atlanta, as protesters stand shoulder to shoulder, there’s an urgent message that is beginning to overshadow some of their message.

“We’re better than this as a city,” said Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms. “We’re better than this as a country. Go home, go home.”

Part of that request to go home comes from community public health specialists, such as Dr. O’dell Owens.

“There’s two levels of that for me,” said Dr. Owens. “As an African-American, I’m disappointed with the violence, but if I put my public health hat on: What a disaster, what a disaster.”

He says that people in the streets, many without masks, they’re shouting and that contagion can spread more than six feet.

The track record already for when that happens shows that this kind of behavior can spread the virus.

“The incubation period is short as three to four days but could be as long as two weeks,” said Dr. Stephen Blatt, an infection control specialist at TriHealth. “There have been some outbreaks among choirs that have been interesting. Several large outbreaks, one person gets it, droplets get expelled and then the whole choir gets it. Certainly, it’s a possibility.”

While many protesters are younger, which ups the odds they will recover, there’s something that’s it’s important to remember.

“You’re going to go home and kill your grandma,” said Dr. Owens. “I’m not pulling any punches. You’re going to go home and kill your grandma who is elderly with multiple underlying problems.”

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