Americans Protest Against Shelter-in-Place Orders

With the strict shelter-in-place orders, angry Americans across the country have begun to express frustration about social distancing with protests, lining up on streets and surrounding state capitols. 

One of the largest recent protests was in Michigan, where protesters denounced Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s extension of the state’s stay-home order through April 30. Protesters filled up streets with signs demanding state officials to end the lockdown. “Shutdown the shutdown,” one sign read, while another declared “Freedom over fear.”

“If I get sick, then I am going to bear the consequences of my getting sick,” protester Andy Lyons told  CNN affiliate WTHR. “If anybody else gets sick, they bear the consequences of their free choice without government coercion to do so. That’s what this is about.”

And in Texas, protesters gathered in close quarters around the governor’s mansion.

These protests violate social distancing guidelines and leave people susceptible to contracting and spreading the virus. Furthermore, these protestors are actually in the minority.

 A Politico/Morning Consult poll revealed last week that 81 percent of Americas feel the country “should continue to social distance for as long as is needed to curb the spread of coronavirus, even if it means continued damage to the economy.”

Additionally, the White House stated it is still too early to begin reopening so quickly, and health experts are agreeing. The Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation Model shows that, in Texas, strict social distancing guidelines need to remain in place through May before containment can happen.

“If we open up now, we’ll see a big resurgence,” Vaccine and infectious disease expert Dr. Peter Hotez told KHOU 11 in Houston.

Health officials have also warned additional waves of coronavirus are virtually inevitable. But “it’s up to us how big those other waves will be,” epidemiologist Dr. Larry Brilliant said.