The BLM loophole: Mass gatherings are okay if leaders and public health officials sympathize with protesters’ message?

In a nearby space, three highly credentialed public health doctors argue that gathering in large groups to protest police abuses amidst the coronavirus pandemic is a-okay despite warning after warning about social distancing from Dr. Tony Fauci to Gov. Cuomo to Mayor de Blasio.

Their contortions to issue a clean bill of health to one type of gathering, just weeks after the widespread condemnation of all others, fails the smell test.

The public health wonks claim that Black Lives Matter protesters are commonly masked and six feet apart. Trust your own eyes: Many, many protesters are uncovered and far too close together. Then comes a claim that while coronavirus kills, so does racism. While clearly true, there are many ways to oppose bigotry’s poison; only one of those ways also spreads a pathogen that has killed 100,000 Americans and climbing.

Wednesday, Mayor de Blasio signed emergency executive order No. 120, continuing the ban on “any non-essential gathering of individuals of any size.” No exceptions there.