Protests had no measurable tie to COVID spread.

The first thing I thought was MASKS - despite the white-capped woman in the middle who's sporting the mask-as-necklace look

The protests still worry me, though. One of my kids keeps asking to participate, but I'm reluctant to agree unless it's right here in the neighborhood. It seems risky enough without adding public transportation to the mix.

Yet.

The fact that we’re not seeing big spikes in all the cities that had protests, but mostly just the ones where the state opened up aggressively and quickly, seems pretty telling to me. New York had massive protests. No spike.

Me, I’m watching for that big spike in Tulsa after the indoor rally of maskless wonders . You know it’s coming.

The experts keep saying that the greatest risk of transmission is through prolonged contact indoors. If the crowds were marching/moving, and obviously outdoors, prolonged contact would be much less likely than in an indoor venue like a bar or church where you’re literally standing/sitting there with the same people for an hour or more.

We had an uptick in our little county that is partially related to protests. We were down to 3-4 new cases a day with some zeros thinking we were almost out of the woods when we had a week of 150 cases with almost all in the 20-30 age group with many mentioning they'd attended protests. I think we had an initial 50ish and then they ask anyone who'd attended a protest to get tested and there were another 100ish cases. Now the good news is there was no increase in hospitalizations or deaths, so hopefully that age group is staying far away from others. We're back down now in the last week, so fingers crossed it's just a blip.

Massachusetts numbers are going down. We’ve had lots of protests. Only 2-3 days with rioting right at the beginning. My kids have gone to several protests in Boston and said almost everyone was wearing masks. I’m sure it varies across the country.

That is one smart virus that can tell the difference between a protest and a gathering of 100.

We went to one and everyone was in masks and everyone marched at least a little far apart. I felt really comfortable - you could socially distance very well and stay safe.

I'm in MN, our numbers are going down, and we were the hot bed of the protests. I honestly was surprised. A lot of people did wear masks though. They offered several sites of free testing a wk after the protests also. Keeping my fingers crossed.

The key is they are outdoors. It's the indoor rallies that are going to make people sick. 

So no one is going to complain about large outdoor rallies?

Tell me again that there is no rise in Minnesota. Or 36 other states.

www.cnn.com/2020/06/28/health/us-coronavirus-sunday/index.html

So if that's the case, then there's no way anyone can say that there isn't a spike in numbers due to the protests.

I wear a mask at work and when in public. My kids wear masks. We stay home except when working or for necessary trips. My groceries are delivered and my kids don't play with their friends. We haven't traveled and we don't see friends and family. I don't like large gatherings of any kind. But to say that hundreds of thousands of people wearing questionable masks, if any at all, standing close, screaming and yelling and chanting won't cause a spike in COVID isn't realistic and is simply a politically motivated statement.