Chronic. Two weeks of major protests against police violence and racial prejudice have raised concerns about a second wave of SARS CoV-2 contamination in the United States. It is difficult to collectively demonstrate legitimate anger following the murder of George Floyd by the Minneapolis police by standing more than two meters from the other demonstrators. And the wearing of masks is not fully respected in processions, any more than it is in general anywhere in the United States.
But causality in the opposite direction, from the pandemic to the protests, has received far less attention. A question arises, which in no way diminishes the horror of a death like that of Floyd: why now?
Because before Floyd, the police had killed Michael Brown, in Ferguson (Missouri) in August 2014. One month before, Eric Garner died in New York, tackled on the ground by the police, while he complained, just like Floyd: " I can not breathe. " One hundred African Americans have died in police arrest in the past six years, according to a count by National Public Radio.
The effects of the pandemic
One of the explanations often put forward is the particularly horrible video that quickly caught the attention of social networks and the media. But the video of Garner's murder was just as excruciating.
A more convincing explanation is … the effects of the pandemic. It is no coincidence that there is an exaggerated proportion of African-Americans in service jobs, where unemployment is now taking its toll. It is no coincidence that the share of the population (excluding the elderly) without health insurance is 1.5 times higher among blacks than among whites. And it's no coincidence that the mortality rate for Covid-19 is 2.4 times higher for blacks than for whites. Even without additional images of police brutality, the plight of many African Americans, disproportionately worsened by the pandemic, was already on the brink of what is bearable.
This is because America’s social safety net is worn out. Unemployment benefits are generally limited to twenty-six weeks in the United States. Aid provided in some southern states is even more limited. Some, like Florida, have even designed public service checks to make it as difficult as possible to qualify for unemployment benefits.
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