South Carolina protest leader Lawrence Dishawn Nathaniel said Monday that he is putting further actions on hold because at least 13 members of his group are infected with coronavirus.
With COVID-19 cases on the rise in many regions of the United States, Nathaniel is encouraging anyone who has participated in previous demonstrations to receive coronavirus testing as soon as possible, Fox News reported.
Protesters demonstrated in Downtown Columbus near the statehouse in solidarity with nation wide protests against the murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis, Minnesota. (Photo by Matthew Hatcher/Getty Images)
“We’re canceling all protests,” he said. “We must do our part, so if you’re gonna go out, make sure you have your mask, make sure you have your hand sanitizer.” (RELATED: ‘Of Course Not’: Fauci Says He Would Not Attend Trump Rally Over Coronavirus Fears)
Nathaniel has led protests across South Carolina throughout June under the banner of “I Can’t Breathe SC,” a title that references some of the last words of George Floyd, whose death while in Minneapolis police custody ignited fury across the United States.
Nathaniel told Fox News that the infected demonstrators all participated in protests from May 30 to June 17 in three South Carolina cities. He added that the group will restrict its efforts for the time being to online activism.
In the days leading up to President Donald Trump’s rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma, local health officials expressed concern that massing a large group of people in an arena could spread COVID-19 through the city. (RELATED: Rioters Clash With DC Police, Try To Tear Down Andrew Jackson Monument, Set Up ‘Black House Autonomous Zone’)
Dr. Anthony Fauci, a top epidemiologist in the White House coronavirus task force, expressed concern over the protests in early June. “It is the perfect set up for the spread of the virus in the sense of creating some blips which might turn into some surges,” Fauci said during an interview on Washington, D.C. radio station WTOP.
Some have questioned the politics behind strict economic shutdowns and why social distancing was apparently abandoned by so many lockdown advocates when protests, riots and looting erupted across America.
FILE PHOTO: Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer addresses the media about the flooding along the Tittabawassee River, after several dams breached, in downtown Midland, Michigan, U.S., May 20, 2020. REUTERS/Rebecca Cook
Democratic Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer led a protest in early June which apparently failed to adhere to social distance protocols.
“Can we believe leaders, mayors and governors who one week say you have to be locked down because of COVID-19 and the next week they totally forget about [it] and, as you say, they are getting together with protesters who are not obeying social distancing?” Fox News medical contributor Marc Siegel asked as a guest on Fox News’ “Tucker Carlson Tonight.”