Got a source on this? From the protests I've been attending, I'd say mask usage is easily at 99% of attendees. Everyone pictured in your linked article also has a mask, at least 10% have full masks and face shields.

it was a sight to see honestly and very heartening bit of community and mutual aid.

That hasn’t been my experience. Every action I’ve attended has had clear messaging leading up to it about masks and social distancing, and attendees have adhered to guidelines.

The crowds are tight and packed.

With a few hours of intense marching, people naturally want to remove/adjust/lower the mask to talk/shout/run. Even with those wearing their masks, their effectiveness won't be 100%.

Which leads back to the OP's point - if the virus is airborne, why don't we see an uptick in deaths for that demographic?

Because the 'participating demographic' skews young.

“We estimate that susceptibility to infection in individuals under 20 years of age is approximately half that of adults aged over 20 years, and that clinical symptoms manifest in 21% (95% credible interval: 12–31%) of infections in 10- to 19-year-olds”

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41591-020-0962-9 https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/nvss/vsrr/covid_weekly/index.htm#Ag...

“We estimate that susceptibility to infection in individuals under 20 years of age is approximately half that of adults aged over 20 years, and that clinical symptoms manifest in 21% (95% credible interval: 12–31%) of infections in 10- to 19-year-olds”

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41591-020-0962-9

https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/nvss/vsrr/covid_weekly/index.htm#Ag...

That aside, the Atlantic article talks about outside air diluting the virus. The Forbes article you linked also talks about this.

https://duckduckgo.com/?q=blm+protest+2020&iar=images&iax=im...

On the first row of images that appear for me, when following the sourced article, they are from the years:

2015, 2016, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2020 (everyone in this picture has masks)

> Unencumbered by a mask.

The picture at the beginning of the article you linked shows every protester wearing a mask.

Also, the virus doesn't kill most people, the human immune (over)reaction does. This is my laymen's way of describing a (deadly) course of the virus and disease.

1.1. person breaths in microparticles (aerosols) contaminated with the virus 1.2. breaths in low or high dose (in further steps shown as L and H) 1.3. (L and H) directly deep into the lungs [1] (almost like intracellular viral infection)

2.1. (L and H) innate arm of immune system tries to combat it 2.2. (L and H) adaptive arm of immune system is being activated [2] (takes at most 7 days to mount a significant response) 2.3. (L) virus replicates slowly and is kept in check, because low dose is easier to combat by innate arm of immune system (availability of Vitamine D seems key as it exhibits direct antiviral activities [3] probably Zinc as well as it inhibits RNA replication of the virus [4]) 2.4. (H) virus replicates fast because the high dose can't be handled by the innate arm -> This is the point when most people will either get more ill and be hospitalized, or recover. This is also when it's too late for HCQ and Zinc to be effective. (Set of studies showing effectiveness for early or late treatment with HCQ + Zinc + Azithromycin[5]) 3.1. (L) virus is controlled and the innate arm of the immune system can handle the virus. The adaptive arm cleans up the last bits of the virus and person is no longer ill. -> Low dose infected person might stay Asymptomatic or experience a Light Cold or minor fever. 3.2. (H) virus is out of control and the adaptive arm reacts with an overreaction of the antibodies resulting in a cytokine storm 3.3. Person gets severe inflammation and thrombosis and gets heavily ill. -> High dose infection: this is the point of no return and anyone who reaches this is bound to have a long track of recovery in front of them, or death.

I've added some sources, be aware that for each source there's multitude of other sources claiming the same thing. Research yourself!

[1]: https://www.intechopen.com/books/rhinosinusitis/aerosol-part... [2]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adaptive_immune_system#Functio... [3]: https://youtu.be/Mdc7T2UTHBI?t=216 [4]: https://youtu.be/WZq-K1wpur8?t=447 [5]: https://c19study.com/

Overwhelmingly the news has been negative.

The above doesn’t appear to include all of the research.

But if you know of missing studies please add them.

The disagreement of effectiveness is mostly about it being used in a late stage of the disease (as mentioned), not in early stage.

The fourth bullet point addresses this directly:

"The study’s lead author, Dhaval Dave of Bentley University, said, “In many cities, the protests actually seemed to lead to a net increase in social distancing, as more people who did not protest decided to stay off the streets.”"

'the Minneapolis Department of Health reported that more than 15,000 people were tested at centers set up in communities affected by the protests, and 1.7% of tests came back positive—below the statewide average of about 3.6%. According to the Washington Post, protest attendees in Minneapolis returned positivity rates of less than 1% and that “officials believe the low infection rates reflect that the protests were outside, that most people wore masks and that people spent most of their time in motion, circulating through the crowd.”'