LogFAQs > #940927142

The point of social distancing, masks, hand washing, etc. is to slow the spread of the virus so we don't overwhelm health systems. People who are protesting for George Floyd/BLM and otherwise observing safety guidelines are expanding their personal risk and the risk of other protestors, but are otherwise limiting the spread beyond protestors.

If I thought most or all of the people who intend to attend the planned rally would otherwise be observing safety guidelines, I would worry less about it. If the planned rally didn't involve 10's of thousands of people, I would worry less about it. If the local health system near the rally had a lot of free capacity to deal with a potential spike in cases, I would worry less about it. None of these are the case.

As for the earlier protests against the safety measures, it's clear those people had no interest in observing the safety measures outside the protests. Therefore they represent not just a nexus where the virus can easily move into different population groups but also a vector that will likely spread the virus within those (non-protestor) population groups.