The protests across the nation over the death of George Floyd are fueling fears in U.S. cities that the demonstrations could exacerbate the spread of the novel coronavirus outbreak, which has disproportionally ravaged minority populations.
At the very least, thousands of people, many of them from minority communities, have taken to the streets to express outrage over Floyd’s death while disregarding mitigation policies like social distancing meant to stem the spread of COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus.
Minority communities have “been most traumatized by the dual crisis of a COVID-19 pandemic and an economic crisis that we’re facing right now,” St. Paul, MN Mayor Melvin Carter (D) pointed out during a press conference Saturday.
“Those same communities are being re-traumatized right now as our black-owned barbershops, as our immigrant-owned restaurants as local generational family-owned businesses are damaged and destroyed night after night,” he added. “This must stop.”
