US protesters risk COVID-19 ‘for health of nation’
by Issam Ahmed
Thousands of people protesting at close quarters, shouting demands and coughing violently when hit by tear gas: experts fear demonstrations roiling the US could reignite the spread of the coronavirus.
But, stress clinicians and researchers, racialized police violence itself remains a grave and neglected public health crisis for African Americans, threatening not just their lives but raising the risk of stress-related diseases from heart failure to cancer.
It has been just over a week since George Floyd, an African American man, died after a white police officer knelt on his neck for several minutes, sparking a wave of protests across the country against institutional racism.
For Ebony Hilton, a physician at the University of Virginia hospital who is herself black, the issue highlights what she calls the threat of the two pandemics: COVID-19 and police brutality.
“We are expecting to see a spike (in coronavirus cases) because there’s no social distancing and unfortunately most people wear their masks incorrectly,” she told AFP.
Law enforcement agencies have routinely fired tear-inducing pepper spray and tear gas, a nerve agent that causes intense burning, to disperse crowds.
On Monday, for example, federal police hit peaceful activists in Lafayette Park outside the White House with rubber bullets and tear gas to let President Donald Trump get a photo-op at a historic church that had suffered damage the night before.
For Ebony Hilton, a physician at the University of Virginia hospital who is herself black, the issue highlights what she calls the threat of the two pandemics: COVID-19 and police brutality.
“We are expecting to see a spike (in coronavirus cases) because there’s no social distancing and unfortunately most people wear their masks incorrectly,” she told AFP.
Law enforcement agencies have routinely fired tear-inducing pepper spray and tear gas, a nerve agent that causes intense burning, to disperse crowds.
On Monday, for example, federal police hit peaceful activists in Lafayette Park outside the White House with rubber bullets and tear gas to let President Donald Trump get a photo-op at a historic church that had suffered damage the night before. (AFP)
[cec_corona flag=false country_code=US]
