Emergency room doctor Rob Davidson told CNN on Friday that he was concerned about the 1,000 person gathering at the White House for the last day of the Republican National Convention in relation to COVID-19, but he did not share the same concern with the March on Washington.
Davidson, who was also a former Democratic candidate for Congress, said it was worth the risk because the marchers, who mostly wore masks but were not socially distant, were marching against systemic racism.
"Yeah, I was very concerned about the White House event last night. 1,500 people packed shoulder to shoulder. The head of the White House coronavirus task force in attendance without a mask, with his family, his elderly mother without a mask and it is concerning. We know people weren’t tested. Only people in direct contact with President Trump had testing done. So I think we're going to see cases with that and it is modeling bad behavior," Davidson said.
"Now when we juxtapose that to what is happening in Washington, D.C., people are mostly wearing masks. Now true, there is social distancing issues, however, this is a public health crisis they are marching against, and systemic racism has taken so many lives in this country, throughout our history. If you were born black in this country in 2017, you have a 3 1/2 year lower life expectancy than if you're born white. If you're a young black man, you have a one in one thousand chance of being shot by police, three times more chance of being shot by police than if you are white," he continued. "So I just think that when you're marching against a public health emergency, I think you do every risk mitigation that you can but we have to do the risk-benefit analysis and those peoples are there doing something important today."
CNN also made it a point to report there were few masks and no social distancing in its chyron during Trump's speech but did not have the same snark when the network was covering the March on Washington.
