Hi, I'm Wendy Zuckerman and you're listening to Science Vases from Gimlett.

We're now two weeks into the protest movements sparked by the death of George Floyd.

The protest started in Minneapolis, where he was killed by a police officer,

but it quickly caught on around the country and then spread around the world.

It's now a global movement with thousands taking to the streets from Amsterdam to Paris.

Protesters gathering from city to city, doing exactly what health officials have spent months urging them not to do.

Despite state home orders and social distancing rules,

hundreds of thousands of people have come out to make a stand against police using force against black people.

And police are coming down hard.

They've used tear gas, they've been corralling protesters into tight spaces,

and they've arrested thousands, putting people on crowded buses and later into holding cells.

Many public health experts are watching all of this and worrying that it will cause a spike in coronavirus cases.

And so today, we're going to look at what the protests might mean for the pandemic.

And we'll hear how protesters who do go out can protect themselves, not just from the virus,

but also from tear gas.

To tell you the truth, I had expected doctors and infectious disease researchers to call for the protest to stop.

But actually, it's been the opposite.

Doctors have staged sit-ins to support the protesters.

Hundreds of doctors and public health experts signed an open letter saying that the protests,

quote, must be supported.

And finally, the American Public Health Association, which represents 50,000 researchers,

has said, quote, we stand by the millions of people across the country and around the world who have come together.

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