New CDC Studies Say Group Fitness Classes, Heavy Breathing at Indoor Gyms Led to COVID Outbreaks - SFist

Two new case studies by the CDC have found that indoor group fitness classes in Honolulu and Chicago led directly to COVID outbreaks that infected dozens of people — and the study authors caution that masks ought to be kept on at all times when gyms reopen, or people should keep opting for outdoor fitness.

In the Chicago study, which looks at an outbreak that infected 55 out of 81 people who attended group fitness classes at one gym during a one-week span last August, researchers found that class attendees reported both inconsistent mask use and attending classes after experiencing COVID symptoms.

Three attendees surveyed actually attended fitness classes on the same day or one day after receiving a positive COVID test result, because they were feeling no symptoms and they are morons.

These infections happened at a time when fitness classes in Chicago were limited to 10 to 16 people maintaining six feet of distance between them.

All 10 attendees of the spinning class on the third day — the day the instructor felt fatigue and other symptoms about four hours after the class — ended up testing positive for COVID, and all had been in the class without wearing masks.

Larcom cites the irresponsibility of the fitness class attendees in Chicago who were either symptomatic or COVID-positive, and says, "Society-wide, we are relying on people who are sick or think they are sick to remove themselves from society.".