In the midst of a deadly pandemic, people are taking to the streets in large droves to protest police brutality and anti-Blackness, spurred by the killing of George Floyd, a Black man who died after Minneapolis police officers knelt on his neck and pinned him down during an arrest.
Some public health experts are now saying that while the large crowds at the protests across the country could lead to an increase in coronavirus cases, police brutality against Black people is a more serious and lasting public health crisis.
“One in every 1,000 Black men and boys can expect to be killed by police in this country,” Dr. Maia Majumder, an epidemiologist at Harvard Medical School, told Vox. “To me, this clearly illustrates why police brutality is a public health problem; anything that causes mortality at such a scale is a public health problem.”
A letter signed by over 1,200 public health experts, including Dr. Ayesha Appa, Infectious Diseases Chief Fellow at University of California San Francisco; Dr. Jade Pagkas-Bather, an Instructor of Medicine specializing in infectious diseases at the University of Chicago; and Dr. Jessica Cataldi, a pediatric infectious disease specialist, spoke out in support of the protestors.
Canela Lopez – Insider – June 4, 2020.
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