Two public health emergencies have collided in the United States: the Covid-19 pandemic, and the epidemic of police violence against people of color, particularly black Americans.

As social unrest spurred by the police killing of George Floyd sweeps America, public health officials and government departments are grappling with the fear that demonstrators and police risk accelerating the spread of the coronavirus, which also disproportionately affects minority communities.

In some cases, the rate of black men killed by police rivals that posed by serious infectious disease. .

“Protests are life-saving for black people in this country,” said Dr Rhea Boyd, pediatrician and masters of public health in minority health policy.

1 in 1000 Black men and boys will be killed by police in their lifetime.

While Covid-19 has killed more than 100,000 Americas in just a few months, past studies have found one in 1,000 black men in American are expected to die by police violence in their lifetimes.

At the same time, police tactics threaten to accelerate the spread of Covid-19.

A local court ordinance asked police to release people charged with misdemeanors, rather than bring them into jail, to slow the spread of Covid-19

At the same time, Covid-19 has already taken a devastating and disproportionate toll on black Americans, because of a laundry list of state policies

Black Americans are less likely to have paid sick leave, less likely to live in states with public health insurance safety nets and are overrepresented among essential workers,