This is key: public health experts who are saying "Racism is an even bigger public health crisis" clearly don't understand that this message is not swaying folks outside a pretty small bubble.
To be clear: racial disparities in mortality/morbidity exist and are an enormous problem we should be working to address.
But it does not seem all that likely that having protests now, this week, will cure those disparities. It takes years to shift life expectancy.
But it does not seem all that likely that having protests now, this week, will cure those disparities. It takes years to shift life expectancy.
Moreover, church-going is highly correlated with better health and longer lives. No one was making this kind of nuanced, holistic assessment of the risks and benefits when it came to Penecostals who wanted to worship in company; the message was "Stay home, save lives".
You can argue until you are blue in the face that this is different, the problem is bigger, more important, more morally urgent. I might agree with you--my argument to my fellow churchgoers has been, and remains "Jesus knows your address and will be happy to visit you at home."
But you don't have to convince me. You have to convince a bunch of people who aren't following things that closely, who did catch a lot of the truly venomous contempt that was dumped on them for wanting to go to church or open their small business, and aren't super receptive.
I worry that this might not be clear to people who are pretty homogenous, and not necessarily talking to--much less taking seriously--a lot of the folks we'll need to reach to control any resurgence.
