Probably because of all of the talk about how the riots/protests are more important than covid19. Please keep social distancing and sheltering in place, unless you are rioting/protesting. You can't have it both ways.

You aren’t missing anything. There has been a concerted effort to move COVID-19 lower on the priority list so that people would open up. But it’s still just as infectious as it was in February and March, and cases are starting to surge in a number of southern and western states where lockdowns ended earliest.

It depends on who you ask. Some people believe it to be a sort of sacrifice i.e. it's worth getting sick and possibly dying for a social cause. That, I think, is the same sentiment represented by the business closure protesters. Just different social causes.

Many people forgot when the news cycle told them to forget.

I think it's important to note that one group of protesters is still taking SARS-CoV-2 more seriously than another group of protesters[0].

[0]: https://i.imgur.com/isF7i7T.jpg

Few people think the disease has magically disappeared, but many are beginning to accept the current situation as the status quo, and are increasingly unwilling to accept extreme social costs to make it better. (Which isn't to say people won't accept any costs; I think most people are smart enough to realize that their area isn't immune from a disastrous spike.)

The lockdown itself carries significant public health risks. There’s a Reuter’s article [1] which gives a high level overview, but I’m still looking for a good scientific paper with dollar and lost person-years of lifespan estimates from all the direct and indirect side-effects of the lockdown.

IMO once policy makers start picking and choosing preferred causes which are more worthy than the lockdown, then the lockdown is effectively over.

I am hopeful that we won’t see a large spike in cases in the coming weeks, and perhaps this can serve as a datapoint that we can continue opening up more broadly.

In the meantime we have massive groups in close proximity, often chanting/yelling for long periods of time which the data indicates is a very high risk environment. A homemade mask is not going to provide reliable protection while protesting for hours with thousands of people. Stop once to sip a bottle of water and that barrier is compromised.

If asymptomatic spread of a deadly pathogen leads to the conclusion that we must be social distancing, then mass protests are deadly, and not just to the protestors themselves. Likewise, if it’s OK for people to mass protest, then it’s OK for people to go to church, for example.

Picking and choosing which social or political topics are deemed worthy of mass gatherings to me is unconscionable.

[1] - https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-usa-co...

The virus does not and will never care about cause or justification.

I think the assumption was people would be packed like sardines in protests.

Most countries realize they have the hard task of balancing the right to protest, constitutionally protected, versus the need to protect public health.