Trucker demonstrations trigger tweet from President Trump

MAY 4, 2020

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Mark Schremmer

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A demonstration involving dozens of truckers in Washington, D.C., caught the attention of President Donald Trump.

“I’m with the TRUCKERS all the way,” President Trump posted on Twitter on Sunday, May 3. “Thanks for the meeting at the White House with my representatives from the Administration. It is all going to work out well!”

I’m with the TRUCKERS all the way. Thanks for the meeting at the White House with my representatives from the Administration. It is all going to work out well!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 4, 2020

President Trump’s post appears to be in response to protests held over the weekend by truck drivers speaking out against historically low freight rates. The president’s post did not offer any insight as to how the problem would be fixed.

Video footage shows trucks lining Constitution Avenue in Washington, D.C., on May 1.

#mayday #MayDay2020 Truckers protest in DC pic.twitter.com/qm6rBnt8Ad

— Joaquin Carbonell (@jcarbiv) May 2, 2020

“We applaud the recent trucking protests in Washington, D.C.,” OOIDA President Todd Spencer said. “OOIDA was established as a result of similar protests nearly 50 years ago. When done properly, this form of activism can generate interest from lawmakers, regulators, and the general public. In short, job well done.

Similar demonstrations or protests were reported in Hartford, Conn., and El Paso, Texas.

WTNH reported that truckers held a rally in Hartford on May 2 to raise awareness about price gouging and brokers profiting from the national emergency.

KTSM reported that hundreds of trucks gathered in El Paso on May 1 to demand better freight rates. According to the report, several drivers received citations for impeding traffic.

Fighting against low rates

OOIDA said it is working toward create more transparency regarding freight rates.

“Now our collective goal is to ensure there is a mechanism to foster change to address real issues, such as the need for more transparency in freight rates,” Spencer said. “While trucking was economically deregulated decades ago in the belief that open markets work best, that only really applies when all parties are dealing with the same or similar circumstances and have access to the same information. Requiring every broker to provide rate sheets to carriers upon delivery of a load would be a great first step.”

OOIDA sent an informational bulletin to its more than 160,000 members on May 1, advising them to be leery of unscrupulous brokers, to avoid cheap freight, and to file complaints regarding any issues with brokers.

“We are aware that freight rates are at historic lows,” OOIDA wrote in a letter signed by Executive Vice President Lewie Pugh. “Trucking has often suffered from chronic overcapacity­ too many trucks and trailers and not enough freight. The resulting market conditions are magnified right now. While there is no quick or easy solution, hauling cheap freight is not a viable or sustainable approach, and we strongly advise against it just as we always have.”

OOIDA said it also is continuing to work with the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration and Congress to prevent brokers and shippers from exploiting truckers during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“We also realize some brokers and shippers are exploiting the ongoing crisis,” OOIDA wrote. “While federal regulations require brokers to be transparent about certain rate information, there are far too many loopholes that effectively undermine the regulations. We continue to work with FMCSA and Congress to require additional transparency and close as many loopholes as possible. Unfortunately, this will not provide any immediate relief.”

The Association also urged its members to file complaints with FMCSA’s National Consumer Complaint Database when needed.

“While the NCCDB is far from perfect, we need complaints filed because it helps us show just how broken it is and might hopefully lead to meaningful changes,” OOIDA wrote. “If you do file a complaint, you should also forward a copy to your lawmakers and OOIDA.”

ANCIENT VOLCANO DISCOVERED ON DUTCH SEAFLOOR

By Byron Mühlberg on May 9, 2020 


The Mulciber volcano (in red) found at the bottom of the North Sea. Three kilometers of sediment lies on top of it.Graphic: TNOTNO


An extinct volcano has been discovered about 100 kilometers off the coast of Texel, the Netherlands Organisation for Applied Scientific Research (TNO) confirmed this week. The 150-million-year-old volcano, named 'Mulciber' after the Roman god of fire, was discovered accidentally by TNO researchers during a reanalysis of old seafloor maps while on the search for oil.

The ancient formation was recognized by deviations in the seafloor's structure, combined with measurements of the earth's magnetic field. According to Michiel van der Meulen, who headed up the Geological Survey of the Netherlands for the TNO, the discovery marks an important moment in the understanding of volcanism in the North Sea.

"The North Sea and the geological deposits in it seem to me to be reading an exciting story. We think we know the big story now. But if as you reread it, characters and storylines become more and more apparent, so this discovery adds to the general knowledge about our living environment," Van Der Meulen explained to public broadcaster NOS on Saturday.

He also explained in a separate statement about the discovery that the volcano will most likely never erupt again. "The chances of the Mulciber erupting are nearly zero. Geologists distinguish between dormant and extinct volcanoes. Dormant means that it is now quiet but can become active again. This is possible after hundreds or even thousands of years of inactivity. But we can declare the Mulciber extinct."


Mulciber is the second volcano to be discovered in Dutch territorial waters. The first, the extinct Zuidwal Volcano, was discovered in 1970 during an oil search. It is located around 2 kilometers below the surface of the Wadden Sea, just off the coast of the Netherlands.

The latest geological find was not confirmed the same way the Zuidwal discovery was made, where an oil company accidentally bored into it. Still, the Mulciber was positively confirmed as a volvano. "Substrate composition, deposits, age, seismic data: everything confirmed the presence of a volcano," said researcher Geert-Jan Vis in a statement.

In addition to Mulciber and the Zuidwal Volcano, there are two active volcanoes in Dutch overseas territories in the Carribean. One of which sits on the island of Saba, and the other on St. Eustatius.  


Researchers discover seabed volcano 100 km from Texel 
Society
 May 9, 2020

 
Map showing the magnetic field anomalies. Illustration: TNO The geological department of the Dutch research institute TNO has discovered a dead volcano three kilometres below sea level, some 100 kilometres north west of the Wadden island Texel. The newly found volcano, which was named Mulciber after the Roman god of fire and is 150 million years old, was found when scientists were reviewing old geological data of the North Sea on behalf of energy companies in search of gas beneath the ocean floor. What gave the presence of the volcano away were a number of anomalies in the structure of the subsoil and the earth’s magnetic field, geologist Michiel van der Meulen said. Fifty years ago similar changes led to the discovery of  the Zuidwalvulkaan, another dead volcano in the Wadden Sea. Van der Meulen said, the North Sea may well hide more. The tally for Dutch volcanoes is now four, including Mount Scenery on Saba and Quill in St Eustatius. Both Caribbean islands, part of the  former Dutch colonies in the area, have the status of a Dutch local authority. Van der Meulen called the discovery a one off. ‘How many times in a geologist’s career do you get to find and name a volcano? Studying the North Sea and the geological sediments in it is like reading an great book. We think we know the gist of the story but every time we go back to it we get to know the protagonists and the story lines better. In that sense this discovery adds to what we already know about our living environment,’ Van der Meulen told broadcaster NOS. The data revisited by Van der Meulen and his team dates from the 1980s. ‘The geological data gathered as a result of exploratory drilling by companies always comes to us. It would cost billions to do it all again so that is why we have this treasure trove.’ The information is of enormous value for the future of sustainable energy, Van der Meulen told the broadcaster. ‘Old data which aimed a pumping up gas and oil can now be used for geothermal energy or CO2 storage research,’ he said. 63 Share Share Tweet Share

Read more at DutchNews.nl:

Surprising Trigger Identified for Explosive Eruption of Hawaii’s Kilauea Volcano

By EUROPEAN SPACE AGENCY (ESA) MAY 6, 2020


The eruption of Hawaii’s Kilauea volcano in 2018 was one of the most destructive in this volcano’s recorded history. Why this happened has remained a mystery until a paper published recently in Nature suggests that rainfall could have been the culprit. Credit: U.S. Geological Survey

The notion that rain could lead to a volcanic eruption may seem strange, but scientists from the University of Miami in the USA, have used information from satellites, including the Copernicus Sentinel-1 mission, to discover that a period of heavy rainfall may have triggered the four month-long eruption of Hawaii’s Kilauea volcano in 2018.

Producing about 320,000 Olympic-sized swimming pools’ worth of lava that reshaped the landscape, destroyed hundreds of homes, and caused the collapse of the summit caldera, the 2018 eruption was one of the most destructive in Kilauea’s recorded history.

A paper published recently in Nature proposes a new model to explain why this eruption happened. The authors, Jamie Farquharson and Falk Amelung from the University of Miami’s Rosenstiel School of Marine & Atmospheric Science, suggest that heavy rainfall may have been the culprit.

Restless Kilauea. Credit: Contains modified Copernicus Sentinel data (2018), processed by ESA, CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO

In the months before the eruption, Hawaii was inundated by an unusually prolonged period of heavy, and at times extreme, rainfall.

The rainwater would have found its way through the pores of the volcanic rock and increased the pressure within – decreasing the rigidity of the rock and allowing magma to rise to the surface.

Falk Amelung said, “We knew that changes in the water content in the Earth’s subsurface can trigger earthquakes and landslides. Now we know that it can also trigger volcanic eruptions. Under pressure from magma, wet rock breaks easier than dry rock. It is as simple as that.”

Using a combination of ground-based and satellite measurements of rainfall, Farquharson and Amelung modeled the fluid pressure within the volcano’s edifice over time – a factor that can directly influence the tendency for mechanical failure in the ground, ultimately driving volcanic activity.

Pre-eruption ground deformation around Kilauea Volcano (red triangle) in Hawaii. Credit: J. Farquharson/F. Amelung

This is not an entirely new theory, but it was previously thought that this could only happen at shallow depths. Here, the scientists conclude that the rain increased pore pressure deep down – at depths of up to 3 km.

The team’s results highlight that fluid pressure was at its highest in almost half a century immediately prior to the eruption, which they propose facilitated magma movement beneath the volcano. Their hypothesis also explains why there was relatively little widespread uplift around the volcano in the months prior.

“We would normally see the ground inflate, or ‘uplift’ before an eruption as the magma chamber swells. We used radar information from the Copernicus Sentinel-1 mission to see that the amount of inflation was low.

“This lack of substantial inflation suggests that the intrusion–eruption could not only have been triggered by an influx of fresh magma from depth, but that it was caused by a weakening of the rift zone. The six-day repeat observations from the Sentinel-1 mission were key to our research.


Sentinel-1 delivers radar imagery for numerous applications. Radar images are the best way of tracking land subsidence and structural damage. Systematic observations mean that ground movement barely noticeable in everyday life can be detected and closely monitored. As well as being a valuable resource for urban planners, this kind of information is essential for monitoring shifts from earthquakes, landslides and volcanic uplift. Moreover, Sentinel-1 is designed specifically to provide images for rapid response to disasters such as floods and earthquakes. Credit: ESA/ATG medialab

“A fact that must be considered when assessing volcanic hazards is that increasing extreme weather patterns associated with ongoing anthropogenic climate change could also increase the potential for rainfall-triggered volcanic activity.”


The Copernicus Sentinel-1 mission is a constellation of two identical radar satellites offering the capability to monitor ground deformation with the technique of interferometry. The constellation provides the capability to image part of the globe in the same geometry every six days – a repeat that is ensured for the Group on Earth Observation’s Geohazard Supersites, to which Hawaii islands belong.

Read Destructive Kīlauea Volcano Eruption Triggered by Extreme Weather in Hawaii for more on this study.

Reference: “Extreme rainfall triggered the 2018 rift eruption at Kīlauea Volcano” by Jamie I. Farquharson and Falk Amelung, 22 April 2020, Nature.
DOI: 10.1038/s41586-020-2172-5

Earthquake shakes Maniwaki, Que., area

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A minor earthquake shook parts of western Quebec near the town of Maniwaki Saturday afternoon. The epicentre of the 4.3-magnitude quake ...

Magnitude 4.2 earthquake recorded in Manikwaki area Saturday
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The US was offered millions of masks in January. The Trump administration turned the offer down.
A Texas medical supply company told the federal government it could make 1.7 million N95 masks for the US per week — but no order came.

By Riley Beggin May 10, 2020

President Donald Trump is presented with an N95 mask at a Honeywell factory in May 2020. Brendan Smialowski/AFP/Getty Images


The federal government turned down an offer that would have allowed the United States to significantly ramp up domestic mask production in the earliest stages of the coronavirus pandemic, according to a report by the Washington Post. The decision later forced the Trump administration to turn to expensive, untested third-party distributors and to use the Defense Production Act to compel companies to increase output.

It’s unclear exactly why top officials turned down the offer, but the decision to do so continues to have consequences for the many frontline workers who still lack the necessary equipment to protect themselves on the job.

The Post reports Mike Bowen, owner of the largest surgical face mask producer in the US — Prestige Ameritech in Texas — contacted top officials in the Department of Health and Human Services on January 22, the day after the first US coronavirus cases were identified.

His pitch: Provide the funds needed to dust off four dormant manufacturing lines, and his firm would produce 1.7 million N95 masks every week. According to Bowen, he’d been raising the alarm for years that the US was too dependent on foreign countries (where nearly 90 percent of masks used in the country come from) for production, and argued his manufacturing lines offered both a way around that, and to ensure the US would have the masks it needed.

Rick Bright — the former director of HHS’s Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (who was ousted in April, and later filed a whistleblower complaint alleging he was demoted for fighting for science-based preparations “over political expediency”) — pushed top HHS officials to accept Bowen’s offer, to no avail. Prestige Ameritech later exported a million masks to China.

Officials gave the Post a variety of reasons why the Trump administration did not restart Prestige Ameritech’s lines. Some officials claimed it was because HHS didn’t have enough money at the time to pay for increased production; another blamed the lethargic pace of government contracts. White House economic adviser Peter Navarro, on the other hand, said that “the company was just extremely difficult to work and communicate with.”


“This was in sharp contrast to groups like the National Council of Textile Organizations and companies like Honeywell and Parkdale Mills, which have helped America very rapidly build up cost effective domestic mask capacity measuring in the hundreds of millions,” Navarro told the Post.

The federal government went on to spend more than $600 million on contracts including mask production. Honeywell and 3M were given contracts worth more than $170 million to produce protective gear. And a tactical training company with no history of producing medical equipment was given $55 million to make N95 masks for $5.50 each — a price around seven to nine times greater than other suppliers, including Bowen’s company. Prestige Ameritech was eventually given a $9.5 million contract in early April to produce N95 masks for 79 cents each.

Bowen’s manufacturing lines, which could be making more than 7 million masks every month, remain unused.
A shortage of personal protection equipment has dogged the nation’s coronavirus response

Revelations of Bowen’s offer come as US health care workers, grocery store employees, and other frontline workers have struggled for two months to secure the personal protection equipment (PPE) — including masks, gloves, face shields, and more — necessary to stay safe on the job.

As health care providers and employers have desperately sought to buy PPE at skyrocketing costs, it’s become more and more clear that no country, including the US, was prepared for a pandemic of this magnitude. The surge in demand couldn’t quickly be met by stores in the US’s Strategic National Stockpile, and companies that traditionally make equipment were inundated with requests from around the globe.

Vox’s German Lopez explained the issue this way:


The problem is about both supply and demand. Prior to the coronavirus outbreak, China made half the world’s face masks. When the outbreak took off there, China started to use its supply and hoard what remained. This problem has only spread since, as more and more countries hoard whatever medical supplies they can get — with some, like Germany, even banning most PPE exports. So as demand increased due to Covid-19 — not just from health care workers but from a general public increasingly scared of infection — there was less supply to go around.

Health care workers were forced to use disposable equipment multiple times, making them more vulnerable to infection and threatening hospitals’ ability to care for an influx of patients when they need it most.

Workers in grocery stores, big box stores, and delivery services have also been put in harm’s way, having to show up to work and interact regularly with the public, oftentimes without adequate protection, as Vox’s Emily Stewart has explained.

A survey conducted by the University of California Berkeley and UC San Francisco between March 7 and April 9 found that only 19 percent of essential workers at companies such as Walmart, McDonald’s, Costco, Amazon, UPS, and Walgreens were given masks, while 56 percent said their employer made gloves available. In the weeks since the survey was taken, companies may have implemented more protective rules, though guidelines often vary by state.

Despite clear delays in preparing to protect frontline workers from the virus, there are still ways the country can catch up.

As Vox’s Matthew Yglesias has argued, the government could use the Defense Production Act (DPA) to issue loans and purchase guarantees to companies, helping them expand production while giving them a measure of comfort in hiring more workers at an uncertain economic moment.

The DPA could also be used to loosen restrictions on regulation and inspection to speed up production without liability in the face of the emergency. In the meantime, after years of poor preparation, the rejection of Prestige Ameritech’s offer, and weeks of delivery and acquisition delays, many frontline workers must continue to make do with inadequate — and even dangerous — levels of PPE.

WINNIPEG
Protesters ignore social distancing, call for end to restrictions

By: Malak Abas Posted: 05/9/2020


Approximately 100 people attend an anti-lockdown rally at the Manitoba Legislature. A group called Winnipeg Aware is calling for the COVID-19 restrictions be lifted in the province, claiming the restrictions are more harmful to human health than the novel coronavirus.


Protests calling for an end to COVID-19 restrictions made their way to Winnipeg Saturday.

Just over 100 people congregated at the Manitoba Legislative building for "A Rally For Freedom and Human Rights" hosted by a group calling itself Winnipeg Aware. The group is demanding lockdowns be lifted, saying there is no scientific basis for social distancing and "counterproductive to the development of the natural immune system," the group said in a press release.


Winnipeg Aware spokesperson Gerry Bohemier called for an end to COVID-19 vaccine development to the crowd, some of whom carried signage with slogans including "W.H.O. = China," "Stop the doctator" and "Go see hospitals are empty, practice fake news distancing."

"They want us to believe that they’re going to be waiting 18-20 months, or maybe even fast-tracking, a miracle vaccine," Bohemier said to a chorus of boos.
Event organizer Gerry Bohemier (centre), speaks to the protesters. (Daniel Crump / Winnipeg Free Press)

Bohemier, who has publicly criticized vaccines in the past, suggested the virus would "leave" by May, because "the sun starts to shine very high in the sky, and we start to expose our skin to a process that makes vitamin D."

"We don’t believe that a vaccine is necessary," he said. "Herd immunity is gotten by people who are healthy going out, being exposed to the virus, and then not getting sick and then being immune to that virus. And guess what? The season comes, we get sick, it goes away real quickly, two, three, months, and it’s gone."

Herd immunity involves exposing large groups to a virus gradually in hopes that people will develop a natural immunity. The practice is often utilized with the help of a vaccine – if enough people are vaccinated, the amount of unvaccinated people will be low enough that the virus will be unable to spread.

Canada's Chief Public Health Officer Theresa Tam has cautioned people not to rely on herd immunity as the country reopens its doors, noting there is still not enough evidence to make an informed decision as to whether people who develop the virus and recover will become immune to being re-infected.

A spokesperson for Premier Brian Pallister said the province would "continue to act on the advice of health care experts and Manitoba’s chief public health officer in the fight against COVID-19." 

An unidentified person holds signs criticizing the World Health Organization. (Daniel Crump / Winnipeg Free Press)

A spokesperson for NDP leader Wab Kinew said the party had "decided not to comment on this story."

One provincial leader had a more direct message to protesters.

"If you want to protect yourself and your neighbours from possibly catching or passing on an illness that will result in a horrible, unnecessary death – wash your hands, keep your distance, and wear a mask," Liberal Party leader Dougald Lamont said in a statement to the Free Press.

"If you want people to die because you are a selfish, paranoid, and misinformed attention-seeker – wear a tinfoil hat. There are enough real problems in the world. There is no need to make up new ones."

A protester who asked not to be named said ending the lockdown was a human rights issue.
An unidentified man throws a nazi salute, mocking the protesters, during the rally. (Daniel Crump / Winnipeg Free Press)

"I feel as though our rights are being infringed upon, and (I came) for my children and their future," she said.

She referred to having had to shut down her business and lay off more than 50 employees, something she believed shouldn’t have been necessary.

"The original model that they were using, (it) made sense to take precautions. But we quickly realized that model was incorrect, yet our government did not make changes to that. It continued to put people into social distancing, forced businesses to close, when we can clearly see that it wasn’t necessary."

Another protester, who carried a sign reading "COVID = Flu" and also asked not to be named, said he was here because of the effects he feared the lockdown would have on people with mental illnesses, who he said he worked with, should it continue.

"The isolation is hurting them, it’s really hurting them, and it’s gone beyond the point of being a good thing, it’s now become a really aggressive, harmful thing," he said.
Children play in front of protesters holding signs during the rally. (Daniel Crump / Winnipeg Free Press)

He said while at the beginning the lockdown was warranted, the province now had a responsibility to begin the re-opening process.

Manitoba began phase one of its re-opening strategy last week, which included the re-opening of many retail businesses, dental clinics, hair salons and patios.

Despite this, public gatherings of more than ten people are still restricted. The City of Winnipeg has utilized Community Service Ambassadors to educate people on proper social distancing. If people do not disperse, bylaw officers can ticket people for fines up to $1,000 and up to six months imprisonment.
Protesters were able to congregate for over an hour without intervention. When asked why there had been no bylaw officers or community service ambassadors present asking protestors to disperse, Winnipeg Police Service public information officer Jay Murray said the police "was aware of the event and monitored it accordingly."

He then referred to other instances of protesters gathering in groups during the pandemic and said the WPS recognizes the right to peaceful assembly.

"The Winnipeg Police Service places an emphasis on ensuring all peaceful assemblies remain peaceful, and as such, that often dictates our response," he said.

On Thursday, Dr. Brent Roussin said while he recognized people’s right to protest, he cautioned against congregating in large groups.

Malak Abas is a reporter for the Winnipeg Free Press.

Media coverage has blown anti-lockdown protests out of proportion

Recent anti-Trump rallies have been bigger than the anti-lockdown protests. Guess which ones got more media attention?

By Erica Chenoweth, Lara Putnam, Tommy Leung, Jeremy Pressman, and Nathan Perkins  May 10, 2020, 9:00am EDT

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People take part in a protest for “Michiganders Against Excessive Quarantine” at the Michigan State Capitol in Lansing on April 15.

 Jeff Kowalsky/AFP/Getty Images

In the last few weeks, protests against state lockdowns and social distancing measures have seized national headlines. The wall-to-wall coverage might give the impression that what we’re seeing is a powerful grassroots movement in the making.

But research we just conducted on protest attendance and media coverage shows something different: this massive media coverage has in fact been out of proportion.

A comprehensive look at the social distancing protests reveals that they have been small in terms of both the number of participants and locations. As one official in the administration of Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan (R) tweeted about a protest in Annapolis on April 20, “There were more media inquiries about this than there were participants.”

Our count confirms this impression. As of May 3, we counted 245 protests throughout April and early May against social distancing and related restrictions. In contrast, notable recent uprisings numbered in the hundreds of protests throughout the country in a single day, including Lights for Liberty against the detention of immigrants on July 12, 2019 (699), the climate strikes of September 20, 2019 (1184), pro-impeachment rallies on December 17, 2019 (599), and the fourth Women’s March on January 18 of this year (267).

The social distancing protests have also drawn modest crowds, with between 35,000 and 47,000 total attendees reported across all events combined through May 3. In comparison, a single protest against the governor in Guaynabo, Puerto Rico brought out upward of 250,000 on July 21, 2019. Hundreds of thousands turned out for PRIDE marches in June 2019 and the September 2019 climate strike. The Lights for Liberty protests exceeded 100,000 and December’s pro-impeachment rallies exceeded 75,000.

These numbers are backed up by recent polling that shows widespread national support for lockdowns to prevent the continued spread of coronavirus.

Yet anti-Trump protests with far more attendees in a single day than all of April and early May’s #ReOpen events (as they have been called) passed with far less attention in the national press.

These charts compare protest attendance against news coverage for eight cities with anti-social distancing protests based on 3,341 news sources across the country between January 21, 2017 and May 3, 2020. Attendee counts are presented on a log scale to allow for easier visual comparisons of small and large events.

 Erica Chenoweth, Tommy Leung, Nathan Perkins, Jeremy Pressman, and Lara Putnam

Some coverage of the #ReOpen protests emphasized their Midwestern locales such as Michigan and Wisconsin. It makes sense for reporters to be on alert for evidence of political winds shifting in crucial battleground states.

But earlier, larger, and more numerous left-wing protests in the Midwest often failed to draw extensive coverage. If every protest was seen as a potential harbinger for 2020, we would have expected the hundreds of Families Belong Together rallies (against Trump’s family separation policies), Lights for Liberty protests, and post-Parkland marches in support of gun reform to top the headlines too.

The media’s interest in the anti-lockdown protests, explained

Why might the anti-social distancing protests have become a top story?

One reason is fairly straightforward: the president of the United States has encouraged them and Fox News, the country’s most watched cable news network, has amplified them. Both have significant power to commandeer the national conversation, much greater than that of civil society actors who organized many of the other protests we mentioned. And it’s in President Donald Trump’s interest to keep the attention on such protests — such a storyline would likely be better for the president’s standing than a continued focus on the death toll or the shortage of personal protective equipment (PPE) in our hospitals.

Another possible reason for the widespread coverage is that some of the rhetoric and accoutrements — Confederate and Nazi flags, weapons, and militaristic attire — are reminiscent of the (much larger) Tea Party protests of 2009, which remade the Republican Party. Analysts may assume that since the packaging looks like the Tea Party, it will have a similar impact and therefore merits extensive coverage — even if this seems decidedly nowhere close to the scale of the Tea Party uprising.

Some protests featured these symbols so prominently that they sparked coverage that questioned whether gun rights or white supremacy might be the central drivers behind these protests. The Huffington Post drew parallels to the 2017 “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville, an alarming antecedent.

In addition, by mid-April, the Covid-19 story had been the top story in the US news for weeks, with overwhelming public approval of stay-at-home orders. Perhaps the media was looking for a new angle to change up the storyline. The demonstrations, with controversial symbols and, in some cases, heavily armed participants, provided the perfect imagery for a different spin.

Meanwhile, many people who have participated in anti-Trump actions in the past are now observing public health guidance and are therefore engaging in physically distant or online actions that have attracted less press coverage. Immigration activists have demanded that ICE release its detainees; prison reform advocates have called for mass releases; renters have demanded eviction moratoriums; and voters have staged die-ins against disenfranchisement. Over the course of April there were at least 240 protests nationwide whose message was that leaders are not doing enough in response to the pandemic, with another 155 protests in early May as nurses protested PPE shortages.

Some counter-protesters also interrupted the anti-lockdown rallies. Indeed, the extensive coverage in Denver, Colorado, may have been related to the emergence of an iconic counter-protest — nurses clad in scrubs and masks, arms folded, blocking protesters’ cars. But for the most part, these counter-protests have been muffled by the very fact of social distancing — precisely the thing the pro-Trump protesters reject, allowing them to create an unrivaled spectacle in front of cameras.

The bottom line is that the anti-social distancing protests really have been modest, especially when compared with previous protests. That’s not to say they can’t grow bigger. More of the Trump base could still turn out for these protests — especially if the media that has given them so much attention amplifies their message, influence, and appeal to a nation in lockdown.

Erica Chenoweth is the Berthold Beitz Professor in Human Rights and International Affairs at Harvard University.

Tommy Leung is a software engineer and co-founder of countlove.org, a website that documents local news coverage of US protest activity.

Nathan Perkins is a software engineer in natural-language processing and co-founder of countlove.org.

Jeremy Pressman is an associate professor at the University of Connecticut and author of the forthcoming book, The Sword Is Not Enough.

Lara Putnam is UCIS Research Professor and Chair of the Department of History at the University of Pittsburgh.