bripat9643
Diamond Member
- Apr 1, 2011
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The COVID authoritarians all claimed the riots and protests had nothing to do with the upswing in cases, but it appears government officials disagree.
Several big-city mayors and top officials are acknowledging that weeks of anti-police protests and riots may have contributed to surging coronavirus rates, weeks after Democrats and even some epidemiologists openly encouraged Black Lives Matter allies to demonstrate in the streets.
In public statements and interviews with Fox News this weekend, officials in Los Angeles, Seattle and Miami-Dade County, Fla., have indicated that some link between protests and new cases was at least possible.
[…]
…Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti acknowledged that public protests likely were causing a coronavirus spike, just two days after claiming there wasn't "any conclusive evidence" showing a connection between the two. De Blasio, like Garcetti, has defended demonstrators, saying they were participating in a "historical moment."
"I talked again with Dr. Ferrer about that this morning," Garcetti said, referencing Dr. Barbara Ferrer, the L.A. County public-health director. "She does think some of the spread did come from our protests," he added. "It’s not the act of protesting — that’s a great and American thing to do no matter what your opinion is... but protesting without maintaining physical distancing, without wearing your mask, without having sanitizer – we just have to be smart.