Anonymous ID: c60b09 June 30, 2020, 9:36 p.m. No.9808594   🗄️.is 🔗kun   >>8629 >>8706

Science!

 

Black Lives Matter protests may have slowed overall spread of coronavirus in Denver and other cities, new study finds

While the protests brought thousands of people together, they likely caused many more to stay home, a research team including a University of Colorado Denver professor concluded.

 

As protests against racism and police violence swept across the country, drawing massive crowds into the streets amid a pandemic, public health officials worried about what the overall impact would be.

 

Would these protests — which many health leaders said they support — also turn out to be virus super-spreading events?

 

But a new study by a nationwide research team that includes a University of Colorado Denver professor has found something surprising: The protests may have slowed the overall spread of the coronavirus in cities with large demonstrations, including Denver.

 

“We think that what’s going on is it’s the people who are not going to protest are staying away,” said Andrew Friedson, the CU-Denver professor who is one of the paper’s co-authors. “The overall effect for the entire city is more social distancing because people are avoiding the protests.”

 

“It’s nice to have some numbers”

Friedson’s specialty is economics — specifically the economics of health care. The field of COVID-19 research now contains a multitude of subspecialties, and it has often been economists leading the way in understanding how people are changing their behaviors in response to the pandemic.

As the protests built, Friedson said he and his colleagues took note of the rising concerns about virus’ spread. He said they also realized they had the ability to answer that question — using official coronavirus case counts and the anonymous, aggregated cell phone data that has become the gold standard for tracking societal shifts in movement.

 

The team worked quickly and published their findings earlier this month as a National Bureau of Economic Research working paper — meaning it has not yet been peer-reviewed.

 

“I’m someone who likes to get the answers out,” Friedson said. “There are a lot of people who say, ‘Well I think it should happen or I think this should happen,’ and it’s nice to have some numbers to inform these decision-making processes.”

 

Rising cases, rising worries

The paper comes as officials in Colorado and other states are concerned about rising infections, especially among young people.

 

New infections among young people have contributed significantly to Colorado’s uptick in cases in recent days — a rise that reversed a weeks-long trend of falling case numbers and has put Colorado back onto the list of potential coronavirus problem spots. Meanwhile, the number of new infections among older Coloradans has dropped.

 

https://coloradosun.com/2020/06/30/police-protests-coronavirus-spread/

 

(Re-posting for new baker - old baker ignored 3 calls for notable)

Anonymous ID: c60b09 June 30, 2020, 10:18 p.m. No.9808816   🗄️.is 🔗kun

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