Peacefully protesting state lockdown orders is an expression of “white supremacy” that must be prohibited in the name of public health, but demonstrating against “ongoing, pervasive, and lethal institutional racism” is righteous and must be permitted even if it spreads COVID-19: That’s the official word in an open letter from more than 1,200 public-health professionals.
The so-called experts, many of whom are associated with the University of Washington’s Division of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, told CNN, “We created the letter in response to emerging narratives that seemed to malign demonstrations as risky for the public health because of Covid-19.” They wanted to make perfectly clear that, as Fox News Channel’s Tucker Carlson sarcastically observed, “viruses have their own woke political agenda, and the only rallies we should ban are those being held by people who have the wrong ideas, people who want to earn a living or go to church.”
The letter begins by contrasting the April 30 anti-lockdown demonstration in Lansing, Michigan, with the ongoing protests supposedly motivated by George Floyd’s death. The Michigan protest was carried out by “heavily armed and predominantly white protesters,” while the Floyd uprisings are “in response to ongoing, pervasive, and lethal institutional racism,” the letter says. Thus, while the Lansing event was “publicly condemned,” the response to the Floyd protests “must be wholly different.” It “must be consciously anti-racist, and infectious disease experts must be clear and consistent in prioritizing an anti-racist message.”
“White supremacy,” the health pros maintain, “is a lethal public health issue that predates and contributes to COVID-19.” They claim that blacks “are twice as likely to be killed by police” as whites, which may or may not be true. They also argue that blacks’ “dramatic health disparities … result from long-standing systems of oppression and bias.” In fact, they say, “COVID-19 among Black patients is yet another lethal manifestation of white supremacy.” Yes, a virus that apparently originated in China is actually a secret Ku Klux Klan plot; its prevalence among blacks has absolutely nothing to do with, say, higher obesity rates or lower vitamin D levels than among whites.
Since they have gone all-in with Black Lives Matter, the health professionals write that while “staying at home, social distancing, and public masking” should be encouraged “to the extent possible” during the Floyd protests, “we do not condemn these gatherings as risky for COVID-19 transmission.” But, they add, “This should not be confused with a permissive stance on all gatherings, particularly protests against stay-home orders. Those actions not only oppose public health interventions, but are also rooted in white nationalism and run contrary to respect for Black lives.”
“In other words,” remarked Carlson, “anybody who complains about being locked down is a racist, except the people who refuse to be locked down because they are protesting racism. Heads, I win. Tails, you lose.”
The letter goes on to propose “guidance to support public health” during the protests. They oppose banning anti-racism protests “under the guise of maintaining public health for COVID-19 restrictions.” They ask that “protesters not be arrested or held in confined spaces,” that no tear gas be used against them, and that police social distance from protesters and wear masks. Meanwhile, people should “reject messaging that face coverings are motivated by concealment and instead celebrate face coverings as protective of the public’s health in the context of COVID-19.”
These public-health professionals are making their recommendations despite the fact that, as they state in their letter, they expect “an increased number of infections in the days following a protest.” Those infections will probably occur primarily among blacks, who they said are also more likely — again, because of “white supremacy” — to require hospitalization or to die from the virus. Just who is on black people’s side again?
The upshot of the letter is that the whole lockdown regime was “a sham,” declared Carlson. “It was a front for tyrants to inflict their personal neuroses and their desire for control on the United States of America and to do it outside the democratic process, outside democratic norms. Every person who signed this letter is a faker. None of them represents science. We should never listen to any of them again.”
Photo: AP Images
Michael Tennant is a freelance writer and regular contributor to The New American.
