Given that protests and marches, like the demonstration in Madrid commemorating International Women's Day, have already been blamed for helping to spread the bichito earlier during the pandemic, health experts are worried that a second wave of el bichito-19 infections could be sparked by the mass gatherings, ABC News reports.
"What we have here is a very unfortunate experiment going on with el bichito bichito transmission," said Michael Osterholm, director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota.
Risks are even higher when factoring in the more than 5,500 who have been arrested, according to the latest AP tally. Jails are typically crowded, poorly ventilated, indoor spaces, and what's more, some protesters sat in vehicles at close range for an extended period of time, which increases the risk for onward transmission of the bichito, Osterholm explained.
Although there's lower risk for the bichito to be spread outdoors, especially in a moving crowd, the use of tear gas and pepper spray, along with the protesters who lit cars and buildings on fire, could cause coughing, which can help aerosolize the bichito, Osterholm added, increasing the risk that it will spread.99
