Are You Spreading COVID-19 <br />by Running and Cycling? A study conducted by a Belgian-Dutch<br />research team recently went viral after<br />concluding that runners and cyclists<br />were dangerously spreading COVID-19. The 12-page-study warned that their<br />respiratory droplets potentially containing the<br />virus were able to spread further than six feet. Although unpublished and not yet peer<br />reviewed, the study has led to a huge debate over<br />just how dangerous outdoor exercise may be. According to Bert Blocken, one of the<br />study’s researchers, the intention was not to<br />cause panic but to encourage awareness. According to the study, the safe distances are:<br /> 65 feet for bike riding at 18 mph, 33 feet for<br />running at a 6:44 minutes-per-mile pace and<br />16 feet when walking at a normal pace. At these distances, the respiratory<br />droplets would have “moved down<br />to the ground” and are therefore no<br />longer a threat of direct exposure. However, the question remains: How likely is<br />it that these particles would make someone<br />sick even if they were exposed? A recent study published in MedRxiv of 318 outbreaks<br />found that only one transmission occurred outdoors. Professor Linsey Marr,<br />Virginia Tech, via ‘Wired’ Until more studies can be done,<br />exercise immunologist David Nieman<br />thinks that immune-boosting exercise<br />should continue but in a solitary manner.
