After liberal leaders and their trusted science community warned of mass COVID-19 deaths without drastic and lasting lockdowns, millions of activists around the world paid exactly zero attention to said warnings – gathering in tightly-packed crowds to protest the killing of George Floyd.
Now, a Seattle researcher behind early genomic analysis of the coronavirus says that daily deaths in the United States could more than double – adding between 200 and 900 deaths per day for each day of protests involving at least 600,000 people, according to Hot Air.
Trevor Bedford is the Seattle researcher who used genomic analysis early on in the pandemic to detect hidden community spread in Seattle, the first big clue that America had a more significant COVID-19 problem than it realized. He’s watching the mass demonstrations against police brutality this week with growing concern, knowing that from an epidemiological standpoint the “mass” part is all that matters. The virus won’t make exceptions in the name of progress. –Hot Air
This is the fundamental issue with having a barely controlled epidemic in the US. Each additional infection may result in a large number of downstream infections. 5/12
— Trevor Bedford (@trvrb) June 7, 2020
These infections will percolate through the community and be realized over the coming weeks. Assuming an IFR of between 0.5% and 1%, we would expect these ~54k infections to result in 270-540 eventual deaths per day of protests. 7/12
— Trevor Bedford (@trvrb) June 7, 2020
Meanwhile, as Hot Air‘s Allahpundit notes, from the Floyd protests, to Las Vegas, to the rest of the country reopening, there isn’t a lot of social distancing or mask-wearing going on.
Las Vegas is officially back. pic.twitter.com/EI3nXs2e5w
— Arash Markazi (@ArashMarkazi) June 6, 2020
The Vegas clip shocked me more than the protest clips did because of how normally everyone is behaving. Mass demonstrations are many things but “normal” isn’t one; the Vegas footage looks like it came from an alternate dimension in which there’s no coronavirus, though, with a few stray masks being worn by gamblers the only hint of a lurking threat. Most Americans aren’t behaving that recklessly — majorities still say they’d be “somewhat uncomfortable” eating at a restaurant or attending a public gathering — but the backsliding on social distancing has clearly begun. –Hot Air
Read the rest of the report here.