Will Protests Spread The Virus?

The tragedy has plunged the country into a painful re examination of racism and police brutality, and it has brought tens of thousands of people into close contact on the streets, all in the wake of months of mounting evidence that the pandemic has taken a disproportionate toll on minorities and people of color. Could the protests now set off a new wave of infections? Michelle Cortes spoke to scientists about just that, But first, here's what happened today. The fight

terrain in the pandemic continues. The US now says it is developing a test that can simultaneously check for seasonal influenza and COVID nineteen that could help health authorities determine whether there may be a second wave of the coronavirus later this year, and in the latest sign that many people are trying to get back to normal life, American Airlines said it would boost July flights sev as US travelers freed from shelter and place orders begin to return

to the skies. July's planned four thousand daily flights would nearly double this month's take off and landings. Still, that would amount to only about of the traffic flowing July. Even his, conditions in the pandemics epicenter New York City continue to improve, and the city makes plans to gradually reopen. Elsewhere around the globe, the news is not so good. Iran reported its highest number of daily cases yet, and Mexico and Brazil each had a record increase in deaths.

And now our main story mass protests and the coronavirus. Though it will take weeks for any impact of the protests to show up in the data, US health officials are concerned chanting, singing, and prolonged exposure impact conditions may be a recipe for spreading the virus, especially when some protesters aren't wearing masks. I spoke to Michelle Cortez about

this latest worry. Over the last few weeks, the US has not only continued to be in the grip of the coronavirus pandemic, but also has seen dozens of protests in cities throughout the country. Just to start off very broadly, how is one affecting the other? So we had gotten to the point with the coronavirus outbreak that things were

starting to warm up, people were getting outside more. We flattened the curve by following social distancing guidelines, and public health officials thought we could do this in a very controlled and careful way, that we could test people now that we have tests, track their contacts, and make sure that the virus doesn't get out of control again. The problem is is that with these protests and these masses of people coming together, any sense of control is just

out the window. And so as health officials are watching these protests happen from a health perspective and in the context of the coronavirus, what has been their response to the protests. Public health officials were immediately concerned about the coronavirus outbreak some people because of what they do with their day to day jobs. They realized as soon as they started seeing these images that there could be lasting and devastating effects from the protests on the protesters themselves.

I talked to Bill Schaffner, who is an infectious disease expert at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, and he laid it out really beautifully. Oh, the moment I saw the demonstrations, I was concerned because I thought that the COVID virus might have joined the demonstrations. It's a lot of people brought together for prolonged periods of time. There's a fair amount of chanting and shouting, so they're, you know, inhaling

and exhaling a lot. And sure, so that's an environment where the coronavirus can spread fairly readily from person to person. He realized right away that these protesters were putting themselves at risk, perhaps knowingly and willingly, but nonetheless there's the potential harm to themselves personally from being in such crowded conditions. And is there a way to know or when will we know whether the protests that we've been seeing over the past week have caused new outbreaks of the virus.

The virus itself doesn't immediately cause symptoms or cause any outward signs of impact when you first pick it up. The way a virus works is you you bring it into your system, it lodges itself. It's it has a hook that spike protein that it uses to attach to a healthy cell. It gets into the healthy cell and then starts replicating itself over and over and over again. It explodes that cell and goes on to the next one.

And this takes a few days. In some people, it can actually take a few weeks, and we don't know at what point you start showing the symptoms. So the issue when it comes to being at a protest is that the people who are there who are infected might have no idea that they're causing any kind of risk or harm to anyone else. And the people who actually get infected at any of these kind of events also won't know for days or weeks that they are infected.

So public health officials are telling protesters that in a week or two, maybe they want to get tested, even if they're showing no symptoms, just to make sure that they didn't get the virus. They're also asking those people to perhaps avoid going home to their families, and it is a it is a real concern other people say, it's too soon to know if you're infected. If you're not showing symptoms, you don't need to go out there. But they're suggesting that you take different approaches to protesting

that might lower your risk. So I would advise anyone who's going to these demonstrations and people really have it in their hearts to participate, then wear a mask by all means, try to keep yourself as separate as possible from others. And rather than yelling and chanting, how about holding up the sign. What are super spreader events and is there a risk that some of these protests could become these events. We don't really know a lot about who becomes a super spreader, but we know what a

super spreader is. That's a situation where you just get one person who has the virus, who's infected. Perhaps there they have symptoms, they're coughing, but we're not really even sure about that piece. And what happens is that person somehow is able to very efficiently spread that virus to dozens of other people. So that person might be coughing

and not have on a mask. That person might be eating or chanting, and they are essentially spraying viral particles and everyone in their vicinity picks them up at a very high rate. And then those people, of course don't realize for a few days that they've been sick, and then they go out and they bring it back to their communities and start spreading it to other people. Most of what we know about super spreader events come from

dramatically smaller gatherings and generally inside. Right, we have the case of a choir in Washington State that gathered. There was about, you know, sixty five sixty sixty five people at that event, and fifty one of them became infected. And if you think about what they're doing, it's a choir, so they're singing and talking. And certainly we're seeing a lot of that in these protests where people are all chanting together, and they're singing together, and they're yelling together.

So you have more than one person who's doing it in different areas. But then it's outside, and are there other concerns regarding the risks of exposure to coronavirus with regard to the protesters the communities involved in these protests. Thinking back to how hard black communities and other communities of color have been hit by the virus. The challenges that minorities and people of color face isn't just limited to things like, you know, police brutality or other kinds

of systemic disadvantages that we are that are being protested. Now. We have seen over and over again in healthcare that being a minority does put you at increased risk. But we have already seen with coronavirus that Black Americans and minorities are much more strongly hit, much higher risk of developing coronavirus and getting very sick from it. I talked

to Bill Schaffner from Vanderbilt about that as well. Obviously, many of the participants were from communities of color, and those communities have already been disproportionately affected by COVID, and so I was distressed that perhaps folks might pick up the virus at one of these demons rations, take it home, spread it to their family and friends and neighbors. Now, of course, the protests have occurred roughly at the same time as many states are starting to loosen their their

lockdown restrictions, their stay at home orders. Is there any way to know if we do start to see a spike in new cases in a week or so, maybe two weeks, whether or not this is an outcome of these losening restrictions or from the protests. I think that we never are going to know. It's very difficult to be able to tell what is causing the virus to spread.

As you point out, we are opening up, and not only that, we've already seen a very steady rate and in some cases increases in infection rates in certain areas where there has been an opening. Now having other folks joined together in these protests, if that's an accelerant, how do we know exact a how widespread the virus is going to be in the absence of protests. There are certain things that epidemiologists will be able to do. Looking backwards, we'll be able to look at areas where the protests

were really widely held. We might be able to look, to some extent in different groups how widely spreading the viruses, perhaps in black and minority communities, although in all honesty, there has been a lot of of white people attending these protests as well, so they could be bringing the virus back to their communities if they're coming from communities that aren't as diverse. So it's going to be very difficult to tease these things out. That was Michelle Quartets

and that's our show today. For coverage of the outbreak from one bureaus around the world, visit Bloomberg dot com slash coronavirus and if you like the show, please leave us a review and a rating on Apple Podcasts or spotifyl It's the best way to help more listeners find our global reporting. The Prognosis Daily Edition is produced by Topher foreheads Jordan Gaspore, Magnus Hendrickson and me Laura Carlson. Today's main story was reported by Michele Portez. Original music

by Leo Sidrin. Our editors Our Francesca Levie and Rick Shine. Francesca Levie is Bloomberg's head of podcasts. Thanks for listening.