From the National Mall in Washington, D.C., to Huntington Beach in California, large crowds have gathered across the nation in recent days in defiance of stay-at-home rules. They reflect a country divided over the proper attitude toward strict restrictions as the coronavirus pandemic extends into May.
Travel data shows that parts of the public are increasingly willing to venture out beyond the limits of what is permitted, even as polling data shows that a strong majority supports policies mandating social distancing for as long as it takes to get the pandemic under control.
On Friday, 2,500 to 3,000 people gathered in Huntington Beach to protest Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom’s decision to close beaches in Orange County. On the National Mall and near the Baltimore-Washington International Airport on Saturday, crowds flocked to watch the Blue Angels and Thunderbirds fly over.
On Monday, there were no crowds at the Thomas A. Dixon Jr. Aircraft Observation Park near BWI, but many people were still out and about.
“I honestly just don’t trust the numbers,” said Britney, who was out with her three children at the park. “I know people in the medical industry who say that they are not overrun with COVID patients. Not everything you see in the media is true.”
She opposed the restrictions imposed by Gov. Larry Hogan, a Republican. “I believe in my freedoms, and that is one reason I love being an American. If I feel comfortable enough to come out during a quarantine, I should be allowed to. If my neighbor feels like he needs to stay home, he should be allowed to.”
Others think restrictions should remain in place, including people who don’t always abide by stay-at-home rules.
“No, I don’t think we should lift the governor’s stay-at-home rule,” said Sean, a government employee out for a bike ride with his daughter Monday at the observation park.
When asked if the order should be modified so that people can go out to a park if they practice social distancing, he replied, “Only when the doctors and scientists say it is OK. They should be taking the lead, and we should be following their advice.”
A recent Morning Consult/Politico poll found that 76% favored retaining social distancing as long as it is needed to contain the spread of the coronavirus, while only 14% opposed it. However, the same poll found that 48% favored letting states with fewer coronavirus cases reopen their economies in the next month, while 41% opposed it.
Data on travel patterns, however, shows that other people are mobile. Of the trips people took between April 24 and Friday, 26%, on average, crossed county lines. The Platform, which collected the data by tracking devices such as cellphones, also found that 30% of those polled stayed home during that same period.
The data also showed that an average of 36% of Marylanders have stayed at home in that one-week period, while 34% of trips have gone outside county lines.
Britney has been unemployed since March. “I am missing out on a lot of money,” she said. “I know that’s not what this is about, but if the businesses stay closed, we are going to be dealing with a much bigger problem than the pandemic.”
Those who have started grassroots organizations to protest state and local restrictions take a similar view.
“We’ve formed on behalf of the many families and businesses that have been forced into poverty through no fault of their own,” said Evie Harris, a lifelong Baltimore resident who is co-organizer of Reopen Maryland. Reopen Maryland has organized two protests against the state lockdown, the first on April 18 in Annapolis, the second on Saturday going across the state. Both protests were organized as vehicle caravans.
“Customers do want to know that a business is safe, so we do advocate that businesses reopen under reasonable guidelines,” Harris continued. “But we want an end to the lockdown in part because Gov. [Larry] Hogan has deemed some businesses as essential and other nonessential. That is so arbitrary.”
Yet Vashti, an unemployed woman out at the observatory park with her children and a friend, thinks addressing the pandemic should remain the priority. “I understand that we all have bills to pay, but at the end of the day, I would rather worry about bills than be dead. So, I think businesses should stay shut down for now.”
Hogan has thus far resisted calls to scale back restrictions in Maryland. By contrast, the state of Oklahoma, for example, reopened sectors of its economy on Friday. Fewer trips in Oklahoma, 29%, have traveled across county lines than in Maryland. However, only 23% of Oklahomans have stayed home, 13 percentage points fewer than in Maryland.
Ronda Vuillemont-Smith, who organized OK Back 2 Work, which engaged in protests, objected to government restrictions as an infringement on freedom. “They are a violation of our right to assemble,” said the longtime Tulsa Tea Party activist who ran for state Senate in 2012. “I believe that businesses should have been given an option to close or to make adjustments. I don’t think government should ever be able to come in and shut down businesses with no plan on how they will provide for their families during that time.”
Not everyone is sympathetic to the protesters.
“I support their right to protest, but I’m against their point of view,” said Sean. “They are not doing it in a safe sort of fashion, and they are defeating the purpose of social distancing.”
