14/10/2020
I noticed an article today, saying that some gyms in Liverpool are remaining open, in breach of the lockdown that has been implemented.
One of these gyms is EmpoweredFit, in the Wirral, co-owned by Chris Ellerby-Hemmings (Hemmings); pictured below.
Hemmings has said, "We are not staying open for financial gain but more for our members' mental and physical well-being."
However, this is not a decision that he is qualified, or entitled, to make.
Hemmings, who claims his gym is COVID secure, has said: "I want to ask the government or local government to show us the evidence as to why we should be closed."
Well, he might wish to ask the government that question. However, that doesn't give him the right to ignore the rules in place. If he and his business partner do keep their business open and allow their members to continue working out in their gym, they should be required to pay the fines mandated by law.
If Hemmings, and other gym owners like him, continue to refuse to comply with the law, their business assets should be seized.
Hemmings is apparently acting as a spokesperson for fitness centres planning to defy the order to close. He has allegedly said; "gyms are not a major spreader of Covid" and claims there have not been any cases of Covid in the gyms that have remained open, either before or after the previous lockdown. He also refers to research by UK Active, the gyms' trade body, which suggests that 22 million gym visits across England between 25 July and 13 September have led to just 78 cases of COVID being reported.
However, there appears to be insufficient evidence of the accuracy and robustness of their research. Moreover, the relevance of such data (if it were accurate and deserving of trust) is highly questionable.
The vast majority of those who visit gyms on a regular basis are fit and healthy. Most are also relatively young. These people are not those who would ordinarily be considered 'at risk'.
Those 22 million gym visits would have included multiple visits by many individuals, meaning the number of actual gym visitors would have been far lower than 22 million. We have no way of knowing how many of those visitors might have been infected, but asymptomatic. How many of those gym goers might have contracted the virus through their visits to the gym, never realised that they were infected, but passed on COVID-19 to others.
How many of those people then got ill? How many became seriously unwell and how many were hospitalised? How many died? How many of them, during the process, infected others?
With the R number rising, claims that gyms are safe environments are not entirely credible.
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