As businesses and gyms reopen some are clearly taking precautionary measures more seriously than others to help prevent the spread of Covid-19 and help flatten the curve. Unfortunately, there are businesses such as LA Fitness are proving otherwise.
Whether you believe COVID-19 is a deadly airborne virus that has caused over 100,000 deaths in just a few short months in the United States alone, or a mythical fairy tale creature like the tooth-fairy, the financial impact has been devastating enough to some businesses to be worth taking seriously. However if you are a business in the state of California, you don’t have to believe in the killer coronavirus monster or even be respectful as a business or individual to other humans, it would however be smart to follow state and local laws and mask mandate for face coverings set by the California Department of Public Health instead of creating your own.
I was very excited to hear gyms are reopening, but even more excited and grateful to be returning to work! Being considerate of my colleagues, I figured it would probably be a good idea to give LA Fitness a call to make sure they were being equally respectful and considerate to guests and their own employees as well. I called the LA Fitness on Hollywood Blvd. and was thrilled to hear the gym would be taking temperatures and requiring full face masks and enforcing the rule with a warning before asking guests to leave. Unfortunately, the only part of this that was true was the contactless temperature device at the front door. Almost no one was wearing a mask or wearing a mask properly covering their nose nose and mouth!
Here are some links for those ignorant or simply uninformed to the recommendations and mandates set by the city of Los Angeles, Mayor Eric Garcetti, State of California, and CDC. Along with some research from ACS research and the medical professionals at Cleveland Clinic on infectious disease.
Naturally, there will be some responsible businesses considerate of their customers and guests and humans in general, yet others that will search for the loop-holes to cattle heard as many people through the door as they can. If you are selfish or just don’t care about coronavirus in general, how about this, YOU can be shut down again if YOU don’t start giving a shit!
Giving LA Fitness staff the benefit of the doubt after seeing gym-goers without masks throughout the entire gym, I went to the front desk and asked the associate again if LA Fitness is requiring masks and enforcing the rules. The girl said “Yes, do you see guests not wearing masks?” and I replied calmly, “Turn around.”
The poor girl actually sounded as terrified as I was and informed me that masks are not required while using the machines. She further informed me that she was the only staff member present and didn’t have the support to enforce the rules! In eye sight of the front desk there was a gentleman walking carefree through the gym without a mask as another girl turned the corner without one as well and about a dozen others huffing at their machines without masks.
Does LA Fitness think they found a loop-hole to enforcing the face covering mandate because it’s a membership based establishment and not technically open to the public? Does LA Fitness care if they’re creating Coronavirus Hot Zones from their fitness facilities which could easily contribute to a similar surge of Coronavirus cases in the city of Los Angeles and state of California as we’re currently seeing in the state of Florida which has recently reached a record high in cases? I was already informed by the poor girl at the front desk that she was the only staff member present and not comfortable enough sticking around to find out.
I obviously also didn’t stick around for a work out but I did get some cardio in from running out of the Hollywood location and home to cancel my LA Fitness membership which I’ve had since 2006!
