It’s worth distinguishing between the protests causing spread and arresting protesters causing spread. It’s quite possible more spread will be caused by the latter, and calling this spread “caused by the protests” is game theoretically similar to “Why are you hitting yourself?” My guess is that you’re not intending to lump those into the same bucket, but it’s worth separating them out explicitly given the title.
Thanks for your comment! I actually discussed the maths of this a bit in person, but omitted it from the article for simplicities sake, and because I don’t think it affects the conclusion much; it is essentially another causal channel by which the protests could increase transmission.
I am sceptical that total transmission-once-arrested cases will be anywhere close to transmission-on-streets. For the period they are arrested they’ll be in close quarters, so it’s definitely true that that is bad, though the total number of people they interact with will presumably go down, which will be a positive. But most importantly I expect only a very small fraction of protesters to be arrested. Indeed at some protests not a single person has been arrested! Furthermore, I expect that anyone reading this article (or anyone being influenced by someone who has read this article) is significantly less likely than average to be arrested, so it is at least less relevant from the point of view of their personal decision making.
I sort of see your point about the game theory, but I am sceptical that “the police will have to treat me nicely because otherwise I will get coronavirus” will work in practice. Similarly, I don’t recommend trying deterrence with the IRS, or the SEC, or many other US government agencies; they have quite credible pre-commitments to ignoring your threat.
Thanks, that’s all reasonable. Though to clarify, the game theory point isn’t about deterring police but about whether to let potential arrests and coronavirus consequences deter the protests themselves.
It’s quite possible more spread will be caused by the latter
What do you mean by ‘quite possible’? And what’s your estimate of the minimum ratio of arrests to protesters needed for spread due to arrests to exceed spread due to protests?
“Quite possible” means I am making a qualitative point about game theory but haven’t done the estimates.
Though if one did want to do estimates, that ratio isn’t enough, as spread is superlinear as a function of the size of a group arrested and put in a single room.
It’s worth distinguishing between the protests causing spread and arresting protesters causing spread. It’s quite possible more spread will be caused by the latter, and calling this spread “caused by the protests” is game theoretically similar to “Why are you hitting yourself?” My guess is that you’re not intending to lump those into the same bucket, but it’s worth separating them out explicitly given the title.
Thanks for your comment! I actually discussed the maths of this a bit in person, but omitted it from the article for simplicities sake, and because I don’t think it affects the conclusion much; it is essentially another causal channel by which the protests could increase transmission.
I am sceptical that total transmission-once-arrested cases will be anywhere close to transmission-on-streets. For the period they are arrested they’ll be in close quarters, so it’s definitely true that that is bad, though the total number of people they interact with will presumably go down, which will be a positive. But most importantly I expect only a very small fraction of protesters to be arrested. Indeed at some protests not a single person has been arrested! Furthermore, I expect that anyone reading this article (or anyone being influenced by someone who has read this article) is significantly less likely than average to be arrested, so it is at least less relevant from the point of view of their personal decision making.
I sort of see your point about the game theory, but I am sceptical that “the police will have to treat me nicely because otherwise I will get coronavirus” will work in practice. Similarly, I don’t recommend trying deterrence with the IRS, or the SEC, or many other US government agencies; they have quite credible pre-commitments to ignoring your threat.
Thanks, that’s all reasonable. Though to clarify, the game theory point isn’t about deterring police but about whether to let potential arrests and coronavirus consequences deter the protests themselves.
What do you mean by ‘quite possible’? And what’s your estimate of the minimum ratio of arrests to protesters needed for spread due to arrests to exceed spread due to protests?
“Quite possible” means I am making a qualitative point about game theory but haven’t done the estimates.
Though if one did want to do estimates, that ratio isn’t enough, as spread is superlinear as a function of the size of a group arrested and put in a single room.