Chemicals Used by Police in Protests May Spread COVID-19: CDC Director Says

On Thursday, Director Robert Redfield, the head of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), said that crowd-control chemicals that police officers use to control violent protests cause coughing which leads to the coronavirus spreading, as reported by The New York Post.

Working on an alternative

Redfield said that he would bring the matter up for discussion with the White House task force. He also expressed his concerns to the Appropriations Committee that the protests over George Floyd's death will be the initial spark that will set off a massive surge of coronavirus cases. High pre-protests infections spreads have been observed in several cities where protesters held demonstrations.

Redfield said, "Definitely coughing can spread respiratory viruses, including COVID-19." The statement comes as he agreed with Representative Mark Pocan that chemical crowd-control result in people coughing.

The CDC head said that Pocan made an important point with his statements and that he would be bringing it up in the next task force meeting.

According to ProPublica, Danielle Outlaw, the police commissioner of Philadelphia said that her officers had no choice but to use tear gas to control the protests in the city after the crowd started hurling rocks at law enforcement and refused to break up.

Outlaw added that the tear gas that Philadelphia officers used was a nonchemical variant that produced a white smoke which minimized the amount of irritant that was exposed to the protesters while still maintaining a clear and visible sight to deter the crowd. "A means to safely defuse a volatile and dangerous situation," is what she called it.

Also Read: Trump May Assume Control on Minneapolis Chaos Amid George Floyd Protests

Dangers of tear gas

Several experts, however, stated that tear gas is dangerous and has been found to produce long-term health concerns that could potentially cause unintended targets to suffer, including those who were staying inside their residences.

The situation would have been worrying by itself, but coupled with the coronavirus pandemic, the widespread of tear gas could aggravate the infection even more and cause a massive surge of new cases and fatalities, experts believe.

Tear gas can cause immediate pain along with watering eyes and burning throats, and it could also cause complications to a person's lungs and degrade their immune system against the coronavirus. It also forces people to cough, which spreads the virus even further, as reported by The New York Times.

The CDC also noted that extended exposure chemical crowd control might cause long-term problems to a person's eyes and breathing, including asthma.

Several organizations such as the Americal Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) have criticized law enforcement for their use of tear gas to control the crowds of protesters across the nation.

The director of the ACLU Human Rights Program, Jamil Dakwar, said that tear gas has become so common that it could escalate the problems of the situation. He considered the weapons to be severely indiscriminating and that they should not be used to silence a group of people protesting.

"It has become a first-resort weapon rather than a last resort," said Dakwar. He also shared his anticipations of the state and federal legislation to limit the use of the chemicals. The ACLU did not propose a full-fledged ban of the agent, but rather, to prioritize the use of de-escalation techniques.

Dakwar also shared his concerns for the police officers that were using the tear gas as they were also susceptible to its effects, albeit at a much lower rate.