BUFFALO, N.Y. — A protest against the New York State on PAUSE executive order caused Buffalo Police to close Niagara Square to traffic Monday afternoon.
It has since been reopened.
The protest started just before noon and included people protesting by driving around Niagara Square in downtown Buffalo.
We shot video while properly social distancing and used our tower camera to record video. About one-hundred cars were there during the busiest part of the demonstration.
They were protesting Governor Andrew Cuomo's executive order which closed down non-essential businesses.
2 On Your Side's policy is to not interview anyone in person during the coronavirus outbreak, so we used FaceTime to interview Rus Thompson, who organized the protest.
"I have a welding and steel fabrication shop. We have work areas, all of my subcontractors have work areas, we're dealing with steel, nobody works on top of one another. You know, there's so many, you can take offices, okay, instead of maybe bringing bring it back, a third or half of your employees, and separating them more. We're responsible adults. We know how to wear the masks. We don't shake hands. We don't hug," explained Thompson.
We also FaceTimed with Dr. Thomas Russo, Chief of Infectious Disease at the University at Buffalo. He says opening up Western New York right now is not a good idea.
"The problem is that we don't have our cases down yet in Western New York. Over the last few days, we've had an uptick, increased number of cases, increased hospitalization, and so we need to be down to zero, plus a little time, and then we can do all these things that people want to do," says Dr. Russo. "We had over 100 cases, I believe, on Sunday here in Western New York. And, you can multiply that by ten, we probably have, you know, 1,000 to 2,000 cases, because we don't know, limitations and testing. So, we're not ready yet."
"The infectious disease experts say we have not hit our peak here yet," said 2 On Your Side's Kelly Dudzik during her interview with Thompson Monday.
"That's what they say, but you look at the numbers, they're on their way down," replied Thompson.
"They're going up," said Dudzik.
"That doesn't support the facts that I've seen," said Thompson.
"Dr. Russo says the numbers are still going up. He's saying..." said Dudzik.
"You can listen to all kinds of doctors. Some doctors have one opinion. Just like I have an opinion. You have an opinion. They have an opinion. They pull up these stats. They pull out this statistic. I mean, it all depends on what you're looking at and what you're actually trying to try to prove," said Thompson.
"I think people have a right to protest, but the science does not support them at all for this, right? This virus is not going quietly into the night. We're far from done here in Western New York. We're not even close to being ready to open things up yet. And, I think they'll if they want to protest, that is fair, right? But, I hope that they practice all those public health bases we talked about. I hope they're wearing masks, social distancing, and good hand hygiene, so they don't result in causing more infections and make the situation worse," says Dr. Russo.
"When you look at the numbers, I feel really bad for the people that have lost family members, 130 deaths, something like that now in Erie County, a county of 918,000 people. That's not bad. We're doing very well. All right? Two-thousand people are infected. I'm one of those at risk individuals. Okay? I had a heart attack last year I had acute respiratory failure," said Thompson.
Dr. Russo says that because of a lack of being able to test everyone, that number of infected people is likely ten-times the reported number. 2 On Your Side plotted the cases on a graph showing just how the number of active cases keeps increasing in Erie County.
"We need to get our cases down, and then we need to get our testing capabilities up, and public health measures in place for contact tracing, and all that sort of things so that we could sort of thing get back to some semblance of normality," says Dr. Russo.
"How far out do you think we might be from that?" asked Dudzik.
"It's hard to say, but with this recent uptick, I think we've lost some ground. I was hoping we could do better. And, then that mid-May date, and I think now unfortunately, that's looking a little more realistic. But we're our own curve, right? We own our own curve. We control all curve. So, if we do a great job as a community, maybe we'll get there sooner. We're just gonna have to see," said Dr. Russo.
Friday, Thompson told 2 On Your Side, "I already talked to Buffalo Police Department, and the only thing they wanted to know is if we were planning to congregate physically in the square. I told them no, we would be driving and staying in our cars, wearing masks, and being socially responsible."
There were also counter-protesters who showed up. Police reopened Niagara Square to traffic later in the afternoon. The Buffalo Police Department did not make any arrests or issue any citations at the protest.
