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.