ATM9000 said:
Capitol Ag said:
TxsAggieFn said:
BI want to add that the likelihood and severity of catching any respiratory infection compounds by how much is inhaled. This is because your body starts to fight the infection with fewer infectious particles.
The more viral load inhaled, the more likely it is that one will get sick, and the more severe that infection will probably be. Passing through an infected person's exhale may not even get you sick, or your body can fight it off with less impact. Inhaling a lot of virus particles because you are breathing hard in the same room as an infected person that is also breathing hard for an hour creates exactly that risk. Of course, it would be best if the infected person didn't go, but many are shedding viral particles before they even realize they are sick or symptomatic.
If trainers and gym staff will wear masks while working & working out, most people will follow suit. Nobody at a gym wants to be perceived as the one taking short cuts.
On these points, just social distance 6 feet apart. Otherwise one should be fine.
As for us wearing them, since I feel they are dangerous during strenuous training, I'm probably not going to wear one to "encourage" others to. But also, most in our gym do not want to. Doubt seriously if we did it would matter at all. It wouldn't for me.
The thing I've come to realize in all of this is that the government shouldn't put these policy burdens on the people working in the businesses. Enforcement adds extra unnecessary work all for something that's not been proven to do any good anyway but is done b/c it "may work"/Taiwan/S Korea/Japan so let's all be forced to wear them. Legally how does the government take action against a business if it doesn't enforce their policy that they created. The fine would be on the individual not wearing the mask, not the establishment. Honestly it's kinda crazy to think this would be enforceable which leads me to believe that's kinda the point. Abbott doesn't want this. So when he put the mandate out, if you really read it, it's not "law" and not really enforceable by a business. Yes, if a business owners agrees with the mandate they can decide to kick people out. Given the majority of our members do not want to wear a mask, that would be dumb. But that was never the point. Many do not realize that there really are no teeth to this mandate outside of law enforcement raiding an establishment. Raiding a business over people not wearing masks? Sure, maybe in a blue state, but doubt that happens in TX. This is the government's responsibility to enforce. Not our's.
Now I'm sure you'll fire back with a sanctimonious response regarding our "need" to not spread the virus to be more important, and that's fine. I disagree personally but it's all good. Again, if masks were beneficial to performance, people would already wear them. They aren't and actually hinder it, imo. So, like the dumb glove rule that wasn't a rule, this is another BS thing that my members don't need to worry themselves with when training.
I mean... it sounds like you've already made up your mind.
All I'll say though is you've got 1 complaint to the city and I'm guessing you know this because somebody from the city notified you somehow. That alone should be enough to convince you that your whole Abbott theory/blue state rant is rubbish and people ARE tracking this and businesses might get randomly visited... especially if you run a business like a gym where everybody is breathing hard and sweating all over the place. So... now consider that you have 1 KNOWN complaint. What if those pile up? What if actually several have complained but you only know about 1? Again, you know somebody somewhere is paying attention to who is following these orders and you own a higher risk business to spread.
Put aside your personal feelings and those of your gym members for a minute, seems like you not wearing a mask and asking others to do the same is just putting yourself and your members at risk.
Also, not 100% on this, but pretty sure cops don't need to obtain a warrant to walk into your business and write tickets... so... probably another risk you are minimizing... just saying... your whole premise is quite hubristic in my opinion.
Oh, my mind was made up, hence the "getting around the mandate" question. Almost every gym I have visited online is using loop holes. I wanted to see first hand accounts to see if other gyms in TX and other states with a masking policy are also doing the same. Sounds like it. Honestly, and again, I think it's MORE dangerous to wear a mask while training hard than the possible threat of covid. B/c I believe that and believe truly that the threat to members and the population as a whole is minimal at best, I have to go with what my convictions tell me.
As for being turned in, the gentleman in question with the city never warned or threatened us. He was just getting an idea as to what we were doing. Gyms in the area literally say on their social media that masks are only required IF you cannot SD. It's public record. Until they change, why should we? Also, we've left him 2 messages on Monday and he hasn't called us back. If it was that important to him, you'd think he'd reach out. And yes, we could refuse entry to law enforcement IF it came to that. Technically we are a private club and the mandate is only for public areas. Yes, there is a legal difference and Leg Counsil who writes these knows that. Hence the idea I put out about the will behind the mandate. It's oretty well known Abbott did not want a mask mandate at all. And, given that the man power is limited in terms of enforcement, it appears like there's really no way for this to be realistically adhered to by a gym. It's on the member. No where in the mandate does it state that the responsibility to enforce the policy is on the establishment. I did not realize this at the time I started this thread. It's come to my understanding after I posted here in the late afternoon after conferring with quite a few.
As for our (the gym's) responsibility to its members to "keep them safe", there are limits to that. First, they are adults and can take care of themselves. We are only responsible for reasonable levels of safety, as all businesses are and should be. No where has it been stated that it's our gym's responsibility to keep them from getting a particular virus or any other microbes. Doubt there ever will be. But what of our liability if a member passes out doing cardio while wearing a mask? It's happened so what then? We are NOT specifically telling anyone not to wear a mask. We are telling them to wear a mask when you cannot social distance. Otherwise we say nothing else and our signage we put up after research last night says as much. When asked, we repeat one must be worn when you cannot SD. Given we are not a Globo Gym, it's very easy to SD. There are never more than 5-6 people on average in at a time and the most has been 12. So no one should be breathing heavily near others.
Finally, we have a business model that is set up to have very limited staff. I'm a trainer. That's really all I do or should do. There's 1 manager. That's it. We already go above and beyond what we would normally be expected to do by cleaning equipment at intervals through the day. But we don't have staff in the gym like a Golds or 24. And these types of gyms do not have the budget to hire just to enforce a mask policy, unless the state plans to help us out. The complaint was b/c of members not wearing masks over the weekend when we were not staffed. It was a holiday weekend but we really only staff Friday through Sunday IF we have to. Otherwise, there's no need and if I'm there, I'm training a client. That's my focus as that is what the client is paying for, not for me to worry about whether some person is not wearing a mask. So, again, given our situation, what does the government expect us to do? Even if we had the staff though, why should they be forced to patrol the facility when they already have other tasks to do? Also remember, most Globo Gyms hire minimum wage HS or college students. Not exactly the kind of people that you would expect to ensure a state mandated policy is adhered to.Hence, that enforcement is on the state. It's their mandate, they can do the work.