Trump wants gyms to re-open. That’s bonkers.

The inclusion struck public health experts as bizarre. ‘Gyms are like a petri dish,’ said Laurence Gostin, the director of the O’Neill Institute for National and Global Health Law at Georgetown University. ‘People are close to one another, they’re sweating, they’re coughing and sneezing, they’re touching multiple surfaces, they’re sharing equipment, they’re indoors. Literally all of the heightened risk factors for COVID transmission are all entwined together in a gym.’

I would guess a plane is the very worst place to be, but a gym looks like a close second.

The decision on gyms came a day after Trump’s phone call with sixteen business leaders including Stephen Ross, the founder and chairman of the Related Companies. That firm’s portfolio includes Equinox Holdings, which owns its own eponymous chain of luxury gyms as well as fitness brands SoulCycle, Blink Fitness, and Pure Yoga.

Ah, no wonder then. Of course he talks to the business leaders and takes their point of view, as opposed to talking to and taking the point of view of workers, consumers, bystanders, the population as a whole.

Let them eat bike shorts.