Coronavirus & Protests: Public-Health Experts Ideology Distorts Risk Assessment

Mere weeks ago, public-health experts worried about transmission of coronavirus sternly warned against large, crowded gatherings. That was before the protests sparked by the killing of George Floyd, a 46-year-old black man, by a white police officer in Minneapolis on May 25.

From that moment on, many epidemiologists and public-health officials have justified people congregating to demonstrate against police brutality. On June 2, for example, Dr. Tom Frieden, former head of the Centers for Disease Control and former health commissioner of New York City, tweeted, “People can protest peacefully AND work together to stop covid.” That same day, a senior epidemiologist at Johns Hopkins tweeted, “In this moment the public health risks of not protesting to demand an end to systemic racism greatly exceed the harms of the virus.”

About the Author

Sally Satel

Sally Satel is a psychiatrist and a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute. She is a lecturer at Yale University School of Medicine.

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Mere weeks ago, public-health experts worried about transmission of coronavirus sternly warned against large, crowded gatherings. That was before the protests sparked by the killing of George Floyd, a 46-year-old black man, by a white police officer in Minneapolis on May 25.

From that moment on, many epidemiologists and public-health officials have justified people congregating to demonstrate against police brutality. On June 2, for example, Dr. Tom Frieden, former head of the Centers for Disease Control and former health commissioner of New York City, tweeted, “People can protest peacefully AND work together to stop covid.” That same day, a senior epidemiologist at Johns Hopkins tweeted, “In this moment the public health risks of not protesting to demand an end to systemic racism greatly exceed the harms of the virus.”