Unmasked Police Are a Risk to Protesters — and Each Other
Why aren’t police wearing masks at protests?
In New York City, the epicenter of the coronavirus epidemic and site of ongoing protests against racism and police brutality, many police have not been wearing masks. This weekend, New York Police Department officers stood along demonstration routes with exposed faces as passing protesters chanted, “Where are your masks?”
Though the United States is reopening, Covid-19 has not yet been eliminated, and in some states, the case count is rising. It’s well established that the coronavirus primarily spreads by droplets released by sick people when they cough, sneeze, and talk. Though masks aren’t perfect, they help reduce transmission via those droplets. Governments around the world have endorsed mask-wearing to curb the spread of the coronavirus, and the World Health Organization followed suit on Friday after months of reluctance.
This makes the refusal of some police officers to wear masks in New York — as well as in Chicago, Washington, D.C., and Los Angeles, among other cities — especially alarming. In an interview with The Atlantic, Alexandra Phelan, a professor of global health law at Georgetown University, said it is the duty of the police and state to keep protesters safe from viral spread, regardless of their opinion…
