Emily Smith, an epidemiologist at George Washington University, agrees. “There were zero sick people who went to the gym in this study,” she says. “We need to know what happens when people who are sick with COVID—but perhaps don’t yet have symptoms or have mild symptoms—go to the gym, take a spin class, and share a locker room with others.” Smith also points to the brief time period covered by the study: People who started to go to the gym a little later in the study period may have been exposed, but could have been tested too soon in the incubation period for the virus to be detectable.
