You're bound and determined to blame protests when evidence suggests that in the South, in particular, the combination of GOP Governors opening up early combined with lack of masks and social distancing resulted in spikes being anticipated before anyone heard of Geroge Floyd...
Houston Chronicle May 21
"The updated projection, from PolicyLab at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, found that traffic to non-essential businesses has jumped especially in Texas and Florida, which have moved aggressively to reopen.
In Harris County, the model predicts the outbreak will grow from about 200 new cases per day to more than 2,000 over the next month.
“Some areas—particularly in the South—that have moved more quickly to reopen are showing a higher risk for resurgence,” the researchers wrote in a
blog post. “If people in Houston and Palm Beach, Fla., for example, aren’t being cautious with masking in indoor crowded locations and with hygiene and disinfection, local governments may need to intervene again should they lose control of the epidemic.”
https://www.houstonchronicle.com/ne...one-data-national-study-predicts-15286096.php
And Large protests in CA predated George Floyd, as anti-Newsome open up protests were a fact of life throughout CA throughout the month of May. I don't know if the Floyd protests contributed as much as you claim or not, but parts of CA like the Imperial Valley, Bakersfield, Orange Co, etc weren't exactly Floyd protest hotspots.
On the other hand, those are some pretty heavy GOP areas where the anti-lockdown protests were pretty prevalent. While both groups of protestors had the potential to spread the virus, one group was explicitly protesting against measures designed to limit the virus. So IMHO the people protesting against masks and social distancing as part of their ethos, are a lot more likely to spread the virus worse than people who are more split and generally in favor of masks...
https://www.latimes.com/california/...aded-californias-recent-back-to-work-protests