The Washington Post took a virtual beating on Thursday over an article detailing the results of an “eye-opening” study that compared exercise habits and coronavirus outcomes.
“Regular exercise protects against fatal covid, a new study shows,” the headline read — and the article went on to lay out some of the findings of the study, which was published December 14 in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine.
According to the study — which looked at data from nearly 200,000 adults in Southern California — adults who exercised 30 minutes almost every day were up to four times more likely to survive COVID infection than those whose lifestyles were more sedentary.
“It turns out exercise is even more powerful than we thought” with regard to COVID, said the study’s senior author Robert Sallis, who is also a clinical professor at Kaiser Permanente Bernard J. Tyson School of Medicine in Los Angeles.
Exercise had such a profound impact, according to the study, that even those who only worked out for 11 minutes per week saw lower instances of hospitalization and death than those who did not exercise at all.
Critics quickly swarmed on Twitter, mocking the Post for being late to embrace what many had believed to be an obvious conclusion even as cities and states had locked down gyms and even outdoor playgrounds.
“Remember when they closed the gyms?” author Max Lugavere tweeted.
Actor and comedian Rob Schneider added, “Surprise surprise! Healthy people less likely to drop dead!”
Surprise surprise! Healthy people less likely to drop dead! https://t.co/c0ZAl2l0qB
— Rob Schneider (@RobSchneider) December 22, 2022
“Let me get this straight. We mandated vaccines even though widely known they don’t stop spread, because we must unburden the hospitals,” @ITguy1959 mused. “Yet we locked people in their homes + closed gyms because … we wanted to burden hospitals? Stunning act of *journalism.”
Let me get this straight.
We mandated vaccines even though widely known they don't stop spread, because we must unburden the hospitals.
Yet we locked people in their homes + closed gyms because … we wanted to burden hospitals?
Stunning act of *journalism👇🏽
h/t @EddieLeBec3 https://t.co/InE1GyMPnN
— IT Guy (@ITGuy1959) December 22, 2022
“The Washington Post announces exercise is a great way to beat COVID. This is something people with functioning brains knew in March 2020. Instead of talking about the vaccine nonstop, we should have been telling people to put down the junk food and go for a nice run,” Outkick’s David Hookstead commented.
Special Forces veteran and UFC fighter Tim Kennedy added, “Those of us not profiting off of people being sick or living in fear have been saying this for 2 1/2 years … Glad you finally join the party.”
“Exercise, in almost any amount, reduces your risk of being hospitalized or dying of anything. The fact that governments ‘experts’ finally admit this, after 2 years of trying to convince us the answer is to stay home and take big pharma products, shows how much we can trust them,” Spike Cohen concluded.
Exercise, in almost any amount, reduces your risk of being hospitalized or dying of anything.
The fact that governments "experts" finally admit this, after 2 years of trying to convince us the answer is to stay home and take big pharma products, shows how much we can trust them. https://t.co/JN9YEFdXa6
— Spike Cohen (@RealSpikeCohen) December 22, 2022