Tenchu's Thoughts: "No evidence" BLM protests caused spike in COVID-19?
The mainstream media is all over this one study that supposedly showed "little evidence" that BLM protests caused a spike in COVID-19 cases:
Forbes - Research Determines Protests Did Not Cause Spike In Coronavirus Cases
AP - Little evidence that protests spread coronavirus in US
NPR - Parties — Not Protests — Are Causing Spikes In Coronavirus
The problem is that they are all WRONG.
But first of all, here is the link to the original research paper itself. Keep in mind that it has not yet been peer-reviewed, but in this age of pseudo-science, that matters not:
Link to original research paper
The findings
The paper points out that COVID-19 transmission rates held steady during the BLM protests because the protests forced people to stay home out of fear for their own safety, thereby INCREASING overall social distancing. From the paper itself:
While the protests themselves were large gatherings that do not match well with social distancing guidelines, the protesting population is not the only one that may have a behavioral response. For example, other individuals who did not wish to participate in the protests, perhaps due to fear of violence from police clashes or general unrest, may have chosen to avoid public spaces while protests were underway. This could have an offsetting effect, increasing social distancing behavior in other parts of the population. The net effect, on both social distancing and on the spread of COVID-19 is thus an empirical question... And elsewhere in the paper:
This study uses newly collected data on protests in 315 of the largest U.S. cities to estimate the impacts of mass protests on social distancing and COVID-19 case growth. Event-study analyses provide strong evidence that net stay-at-home behavior increased following protest onset, consistent with the hypothesis that nonprotesters’ behavior was substantially affected by urban protests." Additionally, "estimated effects were generally larger for persistent protests and those accompanied by media reports of violence." And ...
Using anonymous cell phone tracking data from SafeGraph, Inc., as well as data on the local prevalence of COVID-19 from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, we demonstrate that cities which had protests saw an increase in social distancing behavior for the overall population relative to cities that did not. Imagine that! Fear generally makes people stay at home. Fear generally makes people want to socially distance from others. We did see large crowds of protesters, for sure, but the decrease in social distancing on their part was more than made up for by the increase in social distancing from non-protesters, ESPECIALLY in cities where violence was rampant.
Surprise! BLM is NOT immune to COVID-19 ...
So ... is it safe to engage in mass protests?
I think the double standard practiced by the media already proves that it isn't, but what do the scientists say? Well, from this same research paper, which of course most people won't read because they'd rather believe the media than read for themselves:
A protest is an activity that is difficult to socially distance. Attendees of the protests, be they protesters, or police tend to congregate around points of interest (such as a seat of government) in close proximity. While attendees can utilize some compensatory behaviors to prevent spreading infection, such as wearing masks, maintaining distance from each other, and staying home if they feel ill, it is difficult at such an event to completely avoid human contact. Many activities that are common at protests, such as chanting or shouting can exacerbate the spread of respiratory droplets (Wei and Li 2016). Additionally, many forms of crowd dispersal used by law enforcement to break up protests such as pepper spray or tear gas illicit coughing, which increases the likelihood that an infected individual will spread disease (Xi et al. 2009; Rothenberg et al. 2016; Wei and Li 2016). In sum, we hypothesize that protests are activities that would increase disease transmission ... Wow, imagine that! Lack of social distancing, shouting at the top of your lungs, coughing as a result of police deploying tear gas, could all increase the likelihood of transmitting COVID-19!
But did you see ANY media outlet reporting on that "nuance"? Of course not.
Did you see ANY media outlet pointing out how the violence and the anarchy of BLM scared people into staying at home? Of course not.
Did you see ANY media outlet wagging their collective finger at the protesters?
Did you see them reminding them how many Americans died due to COVID-19 vs. how many died by police gunfire?
This is why I'm pissed off at the media, because their lack of consistency is causing people to distrust them when it comes to overcoming this pandemic. Why should we trust what the media says when Black Lives Don't Matter when it comes to the coronavirus?
The Racist Coronavirus
Besides, aren't African-Americans disproportionality getting affected by COVID-19? CNN told us back in May, only to conveniently forget after the BLM protests erupted.
Even the CDC is calling out the increased risk of African-Americans and Latin-Americans in contracting COVID-19.
Put two and two together, and you can come to your own conclusion. The BLM protests are going to exacerbate the already disproportionate infection rates among so-called "disadvantaged minorities."
But, but, SCIENCE!
Remember this the next time some libtard on this thread posts an article that starts with the words, "A new study shows _____________."
Because more often than not, they're reporting on a research paper that hasn't even been released yet, much less peer-reviewed and confirmed by other researchers.
And even after the peer-review process, which often misses blatant cases of scientific fraud, the media will not due its due diligence and dig any deeper into these papers.
Why?
Because they don't give a shit. All they want is to confirm their own pre-conceived narratives. All they want is to silence the opposition by showing them a "scientific paper" without reading into it with a critical eye.
I've seen this happen time and time again. Off the top of my head, these are the topics in which the media pulls off this tactic:
- Climate change
- Minimum wage
- Racist law enforcement
- Job-killing regulation
- Happiness of a nation's citizens
- etc.
But this research paper, and the fake news articles that it spawned, is a blatant example of the media twisting science to fit their left-wing political agenda. And I suspect the authors of this paper knew it, too, and have a vested conflict of interest here.
Tenchusatsu |
