July 20th 2020

By Oliver Willis

American Independent Foundation

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) said on Friday he would not close gyms in his state during the COVID-19 pandemic because people who go to gyms are “in good shape.”

“If you’re in good shape, you have a very, very low likelihood of ending up in significant condition as a result of the coronavirus,” said DeSantis. “I don’t think it would make sense to close it.”

Despite DeSantis’ lack of concern, many people with healthy lifestyles to have suffered severe cases of COVID-19.

Experts have also noted that the virus can be spread by seemingly healthy individuals, even if they show no symptoms.

Florida was one of several states that reopened early in defiance of the advice of medical experts. It has since experienced a resurgence of the coronavirus, with over 11,400 new cases and 128 deaths reported in the last day. The state has reported over 100 new deaths a day for four days in a row.

From a July 17 press briefing:

RON DeSANTIS: In terms of the gyms, we’ve not had a lot of problems with that. And so, that’s not something that I’m going to close. Partially because if you look, you talk to any physician, particularly the people that are under 50, if you’re in good shape, you know, you have a very, very low likelihood of ending up in significant condition as a result of the coronavirus.

I mean, the people that they’re seeing in there have overwhelmingly uncontrolled comorbidities, a lot of folks have hypertension, diabetes, are very morbidly obese, and so, I think, taking that option away for people to be healthy just doesn’t make sense. And we haven’t really seen that as a major vector.

I know it could be, theoretically, anything you do, theoretically, could do it, but I think most of the people that are going to gyms are in the low-risk groups and I think what they’re doing is making them even less risk for the coronavirus.

I don’t think it would make sense to close it.

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