SLO fitness centers face a dilemma: Defy COVID order or go broke. Neither choice is OK

Kennedy Club Fitness — one of the oldest and best-known gyms in SLO County — is among the fitness centers openly rebelling against a state COVID-19 order requiring workout venues in hard-hit counties to stop operating indoors.

“I don’t want to have to do what we’re doing,” said Kennedy Club Managing Partner Brett Weaver, “but we’re being put in a very difficult situation and we don’t have a choice.”

A growing number of local businesses in the fitness industry, including Kennedy, have banded together to make the case that it’s safe to continue operating indoors, as long as strict protocols are followed.

Their group — the Wellness Coalition — points out that other personal service businesses, such as hair salons and tattoo parlors, have been allowed to stay open as long as masking, physical distancing and sanitation rules are followed.

So why not gyms, especially since they contribute to their clients’ physical and mental health?

The Wellness Coalition may indeed be able to show that gyms can operate indoors safely, and we urge the state Department of Public Health to give them the opportunity to do so.

But until they have the blessing of health officials, gyms should follow regulations and close their indoor facilities — and city and county officials should enforce that requirement.

Allowing them to evade the law is unfair to other businesses playing by the rules.

It also sets a dangerous precedent; if gyms are allowed to operate illegally, what will stop restaurants and bars from doing the same?

Are indoor fitness centers safe?

While we sympathize with the plight of all SLO County businesses that have, once again, been ordered to take a step back, there’s no getting around the fact that indoor fitness centers have been linked to COVID-19 outbreaks.

One of the most notorious occurred in Hamilton, Ontario, where a single case at an indoor spin class led to an October outbreak of 80 cases, including 48 among spin club clients and employees, and 26 among people they came in contact with outside the club.

The spin studio followed occupancy, distancing and sanitation rules — though wearing masks while exercising was not mandatory at that time.

More sobering news: A recent study published in the journal Nature, which used cell phone data to track the spread of COVID-19, found that restaurants, gyms, hotels, cafes and places of worship “produced the largest predicted increases in infections when reopened.”

What about climbing centers?

Kristin Horowitz, owner/CEO of Pad Climbing Co. in San Luis Obispo, also is part of a coalition — one that’s attempting to get the state to relax the ban on indoor climbing venues.

“The spaces we occupy are huge – we’re more akin to shopping malls than your local sweatbox gym,” she wrote in an op-ed for CalMatters.

But for now, she’s closed for business.

“We’re willingly losing $50K a month to comply with state orders,” she said in an email.

Yet it’s been a frustrating process.

“We’ve presented (state health officials) with scientists who back us up, doctors who back us, studies that back us, and then nothing,” Horowitz wrote. “Is it simply wasting everyone’s time?”

In the meantime, she’s got no income.

Horowitz did receive a 30-year, $500,000 Economic Injury Disaster Loan from the federal government — but it’s a daunting amount to repay.

Plus, she’s concerned about others in her industry who received little financial aid, or none at all.

“That’s awesome for me,” she said of the loan, “but it’s a bigger issue than what’s just fine for me.”

Government failure

Given the recent surge in COVID cases — nearly every day a record for cases or hospitalizations is shattered — it’s understandable that health officials would err on the side of caution and order another round of closures.

What’s not so easy to forgive is government’s abandonment of responsibility for the predicament that businesses face.

In a stunning lack of both common sense and decency, a partisan Congress has failed to provide the ongoing financial relief businesses need to ride out the pandemic — increasing the likelihood that they’ll take risks in order to continue operating.

That’s put even more pressure on state and local governments, as well as private donors, to provide as much help as possible, especially since some agencies have not suffered the financial setbacks they initially feared.

The city of San Luis Obispo, for instance, estimated sales tax revenue would drop to $15.9 million in 2019-2020 — down from a pre-COVID estimate of $17.6 million — but instead ended the year with approximately $16.6 million.

On top of that, in November SLO city voters approved the Measure G sales tax increase. The city may allocate $2.5 million of that new revenue to small business grants.

The City Council should absolutely agree to that, and we urge other local cities that recently passed tax measures to earmark funds for businesses in rtheir areas.

Here’s another idea: Businesses that accept financial aid should be required to forfeit it if they are found to be in violation of COVID-19 restrictions.

That’s only fair.

This is a critical time. An effective vaccine is on the horizon, yet at the rate the virus is spreading, thousands more Californians will be dead by the time it arrives.

While we navigate the coming winter months, we need residents, businesses and local leaders to come together and do everything possible to stop the pandemic’s spread.

That will require sacrifice as well as creative thinking, but with both lives and livelihoods at stake, it would be criminal to do anything less.