> You can’t protest if you’re sick though.

I'm not sure if you mean "they can't join the protests when sick" or "they can't protest getting sick from doing this". For the former, I imagine those that are technically can if they really want to. For the latter, those that aren't are seemingly willing to take the risk of getting sick in order to help address this.

> it means many people will be hospitalized or worse.

Yes, they seem willing to risk that consequence.