Picture this: you’re scrolling through your phone when an alert comes up. It is announcing a national lockdown after protestors caused an outbreak of over 1,000 new coronavirus cases. This situation could soon be our reality.

Two weeks ago, a Facebook group consisting of 8,000 people was created to organize a group of people to protest against the lockdown. The first protest began in Washington and sparked more protests across the world in places like California, Michigan, Europe, and many more.

The Facebook group made it known that masks were not required. Indeed, more than half of the protestors did show up without a mask. This sets a bad example for the public since these people are not taking the necessary precautions to slow the spread of the virus. This also puts the policemen, guards, and other officers at the protest at risk. They have to try to control a densely populated crowd of people who were not wearing masks by getting very close to them.

Many protestors arrived holding signs, and some even carried guns. They held signs saying things like “my body my choice to work,” and “give me liberty or give me COVID.” This violent protest is putting stress on the government. This pressure could affect the decisions the government makes regarding reopening businesses and lifting restrictions.

Studies showed more than half of the people who have COVID-19 are asymptomatic. This detail means a rapid outbreak is possible. For example, one person in the crowd may have the virus but be asymptomatic while they spread it to the many people surrounding them. Soon after, those recently infected people bring it home to their family and friends, causing Coronavirus to spread even farther.

Due to asymptomatic protestors, many people at risk can become severely ill and die. It is selfish of those protestors not to think of the elderly community and those with underlying health conditions. As a result, our country could see a large increase in deaths from the virus.

Since March, questions have lingered regarding the reopening of businesses such as hair salons, restaurants, shops, etc. These protests against lockdown happening in our country may delay all of this. Specifically, in Boston, Governor Baker was deciding to slowly open some businesses on May 18th, but this date could be pushed back to June if there is an increase in cases. Fortunately, we recently have been seeing a decrease in Coronavirus cases as a result of obeying the stay at home order. Our country’s progress could easily be negated by these protests against lockdown.

An increase in cases as a result of these protests could influence small businesses to revolt and perhaps open up illegally. For example, businesses such as hair salons will benefit from reopening and may want to secretly start taking customers in order to pay their bills. Most small businesses are suffering, and these protests could cause people to become stressed about their financial well-being.

In my opinion, a more adequate subject to protest would be the lack of testing. For a few weeks, there have not been enough COVID-19 tests, causing some people to not be able to get tested who only showed a few symptoms. Protests could perhaps put pressure on the government to speed up the process, which would actually benefit the community.

There are also safer ways to protest, such as an online protest. For example, you could create an online petition or tweet a message that people could share. There are many ways to do this since technology is so advanced. Put others before yourself. Stay home, stay safe.

Opinion articles written by staff members represent their personal views. The opinions expressed do not necessarily represent WSPN as a publication.