A National Emergency: How COVID-19 Is Fueling Unrest in the United States

The COVID-19 crisis has exacerbated existing inequalities and political faultlines in the US, contributing to a surge of unrest throughout the country...

Executive Summary

In March 2020, the Trump administration declared the novel coronavirus pandemic a national emergency in the United States...

Key Findings

Trends in pandemic-related demonstrations are closely correlated with trends in COVID-19 cases...

• Health workers have protested to call for safer working conditions...
• Prisoners and ICE detainees are at high risk of contracting the coronavirus...

The full picture of the Biden administration’s response to the crisis...

Introduction

The World Health Organization declared the novel coronavirus a pandemic...

The Pandemic’s Impact on Demonstration Patterns 

Pandemic-related demonstration patterns have largely mimicked trends in the number of new COVID-19 cases...

At first, the pandemic and ensuing restrictions on movement reduced overall demonstration activity in the US...

Health Workers

Demonstrations involving health workers emerged as the coronavirus began spreading in the early months of 2020...

Prisoners and ICE Detainees

Demonstrations in support of and by prisoners and detainees began in March...

Right-Wing Militarized Social Movements and Anti-Restriction Demonstrations 

Anti-lockdown protests first began in March, but it was not until April that right-wing mobilization...

Evictions

Not long after the start of the coronavirus outbreak, the pandemic’s economic fallout...

Schools and Education Policy

The debate over in-person teaching and education policy during the pandemic continues...

Conclusion

Although 2020 came to a close with hope that the vaccine would bring the pandemic to a swift end...