Since the stay at home orders started to be enforced in many states across the country due to the coronavirus, some people have been reluctant to accept this drastic change. Many people have been ready and able to social distance but a small minority has started to protest the change because they view it as a violation of their rights. They believe that both their right to assemble and their freedom of speech is being violated by the stay at home orders.

A number of protests had happened over the past week in over 20 states, most notably in Maine, Michigan, Minnesota, Pennsylvania, California, Colorado, and Virginia. Each of these protests drew in anywhere from hundreds to thousands of protesters. These protests violated many of the new government regulations, including keeping at least six feet of social distance in public areas and avoiding large gatherings of over 10 people.

Samantha Mogar, a Junior at Oakdale High School, believes that the stay at home order doesn’t violate people’s rights because “it’s an order to keep everyone safe. If everyone followed it, then we would be able to beat this faster.”

Some protesters have gone as far as to call it tyrannical for the government to force healthy citizens to stay at home however, the coronavirus is known for having a delayed showing of symptoms; more times than not the infected don’t show symptoms for up to two weeks. This means that some people may believe that they are healthy because they don’t have any symptoms, what they don’t realise is that they could still have the virus and spread it to other people without even knowing. 

Dr. Anthony Fauci, a member of President Donald Trump’s Coronavirus task force, commented on the protests, stating that he believes, “it’s going to backfire.”

He further explained that, “If you jump the gun and go into a situation where you have a big spike, you’re gonna set yourself back.”

The majority of these protests have been organized through groups on Facebook. Facebook responded to this by shutting down pages in which people were advertising and organizing anti-quarantine protests in states where it violates the law. 

Lea Martinez, a Junior at Oakdale High School views this as a good change because, “They shouldn’t allow advertisements that would harm others during a worldwide pandemic.”

It is important to remember that the government is setting these regulations in order to slow the spread of the virus and get the country back up and running as soon as possible. The coronavirus pandemic seems to be far from over, and it also seems that these protests will not help to stop the virus.