A man exercises at Gold’s Gym, one of the businesses that reopened after a shutdown to prevent the spread of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in Augusta, Georgia, April 26, 2021.
Joe Cirulli has spent thousands of dollars in enhanced cleaning and sanitation practices for his chain of Florida gyms.
Cirulli, the founder of Gainesville Health and Fitness, said he’s spent the last two and a half months since his business closed due to the coronavirus outbreak researching and preparing to meet, and go beyond, rigorous health standards implemented by the state when it lifted its statewide gym closure on Monday, he said.
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He ordered gallons of electrostatic cleaning supply to spray workout equipment daily, enough hand sanitizer and wipes to place throughout the entire gym and installed ultraviolet lighting in the air-conditioning systems to filter out additional bacteria, although health experts say UV lighting should not be used on people’s skin.
“We ordered everything, everything,” Cirulli said. “I don’t know how much more we can do, especially when the guy working on the air conditioning system told me if we do one more thing, we’ll be able to do surgery inside our clubs.”
As some states across the country slowly begin to lift restrictions implemented to halt the spread of the coronavirus, gyms and other businesses prepare to operate under stringent new health restrictions. They’ve increased cleaning supplies, are checking temperatures at the door and encouraging members to maintain a distance of at least 6 feet. While members are enthusiastic, some epidemiologists warn that the virus hasn’t gone anywhere even as restrictions are reduced.
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Extra precaution
States like Texas, Florida, Georgia and Arizona have been given the green light to resume most operations with reduced occupancy and expanded safety rules.
In Texas, where Gov. Greg Abbott allowed gyms to reopen Monday at 25% capacity with modifications, gym owners say they’ve stocked up on cleaning supplies in anticipation of returning crowds.
When members return to Dallas-based gym Trophy Fitness, the first thing that’s required is a temperature reading, followed by a prepared statement recited by an employee on coronavirus symptoms, founder Kelley Gray said. The gym’s locker rooms are still closed to patrons and there are no group workout classes.
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Cher Harris, the general manager of the Houstonian Club, a Houston-based hotel, spa and fitness facility that reopened on Monday, said the longest the club was ever closed before the coronavirus was during Hurricane Harvey when its doors were shut for nine days.
“From my personal standpoint, this is this is the toughest thing that I’ve ever gone through in my career,” Harris said.
The club has ordered nearly triple the amount of cleaning supplies they would typically use in a month to begin reopening, Harris said. Some items have been difficult to order, however, such as face masks for employees, she said.
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Staff are required to wear gloves to handle towels and other materials, the club requires all members and employees to have a temperature check before entering and all furniture was moved 6 feet apart, she added.
“It’s like you’re operating a completely different business,” Harris said.
Gym-goers return
Although gyms are slowly coming back online, Gold’s Gym CEO Adam Zeitsiff said that he expects the industry to take nearly six to nine months to recover from lost business due to the coronavirus.
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The fitness chain filed for bankruptcy on May 4. Gold’s Gym plans to permanently close around 30 company-owned gyms, but its franchised locations will reopen as coronavirus restrictions are lifted.
Zeitsiff said while members in their company-owned and franchised gyms have adhered to health guidelines, it’s taken one or two visits to the gym to become accustomed to working out in a mask, which the company recommends.
“What we’re seeing so far, people have been very respectful. They’ve been coming in the gyms. They’re wearing their masks. They’re working out,” Zeitsiff said.
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Cirulli, who was able to open his gym on Monday at 50% capacity as part of Florida’s eased lock-down restrictions, said members were lined outside the door ready to enter the gym on its reopening day. Gray also said Trophy Fitness members were happy to return on opening day, although he the gym didn’t reach its full occupancy limit.
“They’re just saying thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you. That’s all you hear,” Cirulli said. “The members are very excited that the clubs are open.”
The virus isn’t gone
Epidemiologists warn, however, that the coronavirus still has room to spread and are worried about gyms and other public spaces reopening in their state too soon.
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“I think we need to remember that this is primarily a virus spread by airborne droplets that we breathe out in the air,” said Cindy Prins, an associate professor of epidemiology at the University of Florida.
While the transmission of the virus may be manageable by wiping down surfaces, Prins said that people coughing into the air in a shared space like a gym or restaurant could spread Covid-19. Wearing a face covering while working out isn’t required in Florida and many other states that have reopened gyms.
“I miss the gym, I really want to go back. I’m not comfortable yet with that,” Prins said.
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‘Nothing has changed’
For those who have been infected, doctors still don’t know whether a person with the virus’ antibodies is immune to reinfection or for how long they could be immune, and the number of people who have recovered from Covid-19 is still a low portion of the population overall, Prins said.
“We’ve still got it circulating within our community,” she said. “And so as long as you have that situation of susceptibility with virus circulation, you’re still going to get people who can get infected.”
Catherine Troisi, associate professor of epidemiology at the University of Texas School of Public Health in Houston, said that even a health safety measure like wearing a face covering, which health experts know works to stop the virus’ spread, has become a political issue.
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The state is seeing an end to the measures to control this virus for social and psychological reasons and, unfortunately, it’s become very politicized, she said.
Both Troisi and Prins said that the end of the epidemic and a return to life as it was before the Covid-19 outbreak likely can’t occur before a vaccine is distributed.
“Nothing has changed. The virus is still there. We don’t have a vaccine. The only way we have of protecting ourselves are these non-pharmaceutical interventions,” Troisi said. “This is not what we want to do if we want to keep the numbers low.” Assainissement Paris.
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The founder and CEO of Bombay Shaving Company Shantanu Deshpande took to LinkedIn and shared a picture from the topper’s newspaper advertisement.
In the caption, he wrote
“It was shocking to see the amount of hate targeted at a teenage girl who had topped an exam because of her facial hair. Our simple message to this amazing young woman with such a bright future. Love to see my team ooze class. No opportunistic sales, QR codes, nothing. Just a heartfelt message to a fellow Bae.”
The caption further reads,
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“Dear Prachi, they’re trolling your hair today, they’ll applaud your AIR tomorrow.”
It was the advertisement’s closing statement that fueled controversy and drew backlash from the public.
It stated,
“We hope you never get bullied into using our razor.”
Netizens’ Reactions
The post went viral within hours of its posting. Many netizens called it “disgusting” and “absurd.”
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One user wrote,
“This is a collective failure of your team. Hope they read each and every comment and reflect. Did no one in the team notice this problem? How disconnected are they from reality? This will leave a deeper scar on the girl than anything else, and I will always remember your brand for being an opportunist.”
While another commented, “Insensitive.”
“This is terrible, a huge mistake you made. This is bullying this woman on another, bigger level,”
wrote another.
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“Classless and in poor taste… You don’t deserve more attention than this,”
one commented.
What the CEO Has to Say?
Shantanu Deshpande described his caption as a small token of support for Prachi, and thus defended the ad.
His efforts to clear the air were in vain, as many netizens still found the company’s response via the ad lacking sensitivity.
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Bombay Shaving Company’s intention was to extend support for the topper. However, it ultimately led to more criticism and enhanced controversy.
Recently, the class 10th and 12th results were published by the Uttar Pradesh Madhyamik Shiksha Parishad. Prachi Nigam scored 591/600 marks and topped Class 10. She revealed that her aim is to crack the IIT-JEE and become an engineer.
Gerber and Perrigo Face New Lawsuit Over ‘Store-Brand’ Infant Formula Pricing; All Pending Toxic Baby Food Cases Consolidated into New Class Action MDL
Infant formula makers Gerber and Perrigo have been hit with a class-action lawsuit, which accuses the companies of artificially creating a shortage and jacking up prices for “store-brand” formula sold at Walmart, Walgreens, and other retailers.
The lawsuit was filed on Monday in federal court in Alexandria, Virginia. It accuses Perrigo of violating antitrust laws by collaborating with Gerber to prevent competitors from entering the market for store-brand formula.
Perrigo, one of the nation’s largest suppliers of store-brand formula, sells its products under retail labels at prices lower than similar branded products. However, the lawsuit alleges that Gerber, by granting Perrigo the first right of refusal to Gerber’s excess formula supply, which could have been sold to other competitors, is engaging in practices that stifle competition.
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The lawsuit claims that through this arrangement, Gerber agreed to keep its excess formula out of the store-brand market, thereby gaining a share of Perrigo’s profits. The lawsuit was filed by four residents of California, Illinois, Michigan, and Pennsylvania, who will represent millions of customers who have purchased store-brand baby formula. The lawsuit does not name formula retailers as defendants. It asks the court to intervene and end the anticompetitive deals between Perrigo and Gerber and seeks more than $5 million in monetary damages.
This lawsuit is similar to another case filed in Brooklyn federal court by a potential store-brand competitor, P&L Development. Gerber and Perrigo requested the dismissal of that case, which was denied by the judge in February. The companies involved in the lawsuit claimed they compete fairly with other infant formula manufacturers, including those of store-brand formulas. The lawsuit also cited the squeezing out of P&L Development from the store-brand market, which has led to higher prices.
Gerber is also facing numerous lawsuits accusing its brands of baby food of containing dangerously high levels of toxic heavy metals, such as lead, arsenic, and mercury. These heavy metals are extremely toxic, even for adults, and can have catastrophic consequences on developing children, leading to health complications and neurological damage. Conditions such as ADHD and autism may be linked to consuming these toxic baby foods.
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On April 11, 2024, all the lawsuits pertaining to toxic baby foods, which had been filed at different times in various courts, were consolidated into a new class action MDL in the Northern District of California and assigned to Judge Jacqueline Scott Corley. Besides Gerber, other baby food manufacturers like Beech-Nut and Campbell Soup Co. have also been named as defendants.
The legal wrangling between the crypto sector and the SEC, or the Securities and Exchange Commission, is getting uglier, with ConsenSys, a major protagonist of the Ethereum Blockchain, filing a lawsuit against the regulatory body in a Texas federal court. This legal action seeks an intervention to ward off a looming SEC lawsuit against the company regarding features of its popular MetaMask wallet. The lawsuit also seeks the court’s help in deciding once and for all the vexed question of whether Ethereum’s digital token, Ether, is not a security. The legal uncertainty hangs heavily on the crypto sector and puts a question mark on its very existence.
In an exhaustive 34-page legal filing, ConsenSys states that the SEC’s endeavor to exert control over Ethereum is both illegal and a threat to blockchain technology.
The complaint states,
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“The SEC’s unlawful seizure of authority over ETH would spell disaster for the Ethereum network, and for ConsenSys. Every holder of ETH, including ConsenSys, would fear violating the securities laws if he or she were to transfer ETH on the network. This would bring the use of the Ethereum blockchain in the United States to a halt, crippling one of the internet’s greatest innovations.”
The lawsuit also alleges that SEC Chairman Gary Gensler has embarked on an aggressive enforcement policy directed at the big players in the crypto sector like Coinbase and Uniswap. The lawsuit particularly points out a campaign that involved a deluge of subpoenas asking firms and developers for documents related to their dealings with the nonprofit Ethereum Foundation, which supports the blockchain’s development.
The crypto sector is up in arms against Gensler’s tactics and has contended that the SEC has never provided clear rules meant for the distinct features of blockchain technology. However, Gensler negates this argument, saying that the existing securities laws are clear and sufficient, and that the crypto industry refuses to comply with them.
Gensler’s actions are full of contradictions since, in the past, the SEC had maintained that blockchain’s tokens, like Bitcoin, are not securities and hence beyond its purview. A senior official in 2018 had stated that Ethereum has reached a state where it is adequately decentralized, and further, the agency also gave the green signal for the launch of Ethereum futures trading—an implicit acknowledgement that Ether is a commodity. However, at present, Gensler is using a recent feature of Ethereum, known as staking, as grounds for the recent legal campaign.
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The lawsuit was filed after the SEC issued a Wells Notice, which is akin to a formal letter warning that the agency intends to sue a firm and could lead to a settlement later. The SEC charged ConsenSys that MetaMask was operating as an unlicensed broker-dealer. MetaMask offered users a means to stake Ethereum on their behalf. Staking was a feature introduced in September 2022 on the Blockchain as a replacement for the energy-intensive mining process. The process involves a system of validators who pledge collateral to become trusted validators.
The SEC objects to the process of staking, which has changed Ethereum from a commodity into a security. ConsenSys founder Joe Lubin has called this account of the SEC “preposterous”.
Lubin said,
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“The act of staking is really just posting a security bond so you can get paid to contribute labor and resources to help operate the Ethereum protocol. Now they’re trying to turn that into some sort of investment contract.”
Lubin also stated that the SEC’s actions will lead to a halt in the growth of the crypto sector and blockchain technology as a whole. Lubin feels that the SEC seeks to block pending applications by companies to launch spot ETFs for Ethereum, following the huge popularity of Bitcoin ETFs. The SEC is in fact trying to regulate a technology on its merits and it will only stifle innovation.
