Fact Check-Healthy lifestyles do not guarantee protection against COVID-19

Eating healthily and exercising do not guarantee an individual will avoid contracting or suffering severe outcomes from COVID-19 infection, despite claims in some social media posts.

A tweet first published on June 30 (here) was subsequently screenshotted and shared on Instagram.

The text reads: “The best way to avoid COVID altogether is to exercise, eat healthy and let your immune system beat it naturally. The lazy way is to do none of the above and just let strangers stick an emergency cocktail in your arm countless times because some short guy on your TV told you to.” (here).

Other examples of the screenshot on Facebook are viewable (here), (here) and (here).

“Covid virus is fake,” one individual added in the comments. “The jabbed are getting sick in mass,” another social media user said.

Although studies have concluded that physical inactivity can lead to more severe COVID-19 outcomes (here), there is no evidence to suggest that being healthy alone can curb any serious effects of the disease.

“While being healthy and exercising is good for your immune system there is no evidence to show that this alone is a guarantee that you will have no problems if you get covid. In fact, real world data would provide plenty of evidence of severe disease, hospitalisation and indeed deaths in young fit, healthy people,” Professor Christine Loscher, immunologist at Dublin City University (DCU) told Reuters via email.

There is also potential for long COVID for young healthy individuals. “The one very clear thing about this virus is that it’s impossible to predict what symptoms any individual will have from the infection and indeed how severe the infection will be in any individual,” she added.

The National Institute for Health Research in the UK warns: “We have heard powerful stories that ongoing Covid19 symptoms are experienced by all age groups, from the youngest children to the oldest people.” (here)

“It is safe to say that exercise does not prevent COVID-19 infection or transmission. What the latest research suggests is that consistently meeting physical activity guidelines (between 150-300 minutes of moderate to vigorous physical activity per week) is associated with a reduced risk for severe COVID-19 outcomes among infected adults,” Dr Jane Thornton, Canada Research Chair in Injury Prevention & Physical Activity for Health, and Assistant Professor in the Department of Family Medicine at Western University, Canada, told Reuters (here).

“While physical activity and healthy eating are great ways to boost the immune system, athletes and individuals who are physically active can still get COVID-19. Young, healthy people contract COVID-19 and can experience severe outcomes including prolonged symptoms, hospitalization, ICU admissions and death,” she added.

Vaccines remain the “best defense” against contracting the virus, Dr Thornton said.

A Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) study released in July 2020 found that 35% of respondents did not return to baseline health after 14 to 21 days after symptoms started, while 20% of previously healthy 18-34 had ongoing symptoms (here) (here).

Meanwhile, a Public Health England (PHE) risk assessment of the Delta variant first published on July 23 suggests there is an increased risk in reinfection with the Delta variant compared to the Alpha variant (here) (here).

The CDC recommends that those who contracted COVID-19 still be inoculated against the disease (here).

PHE data suggests that both the Pfizer-BioNTech and Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccines are effective at preventing hospitalisation against the Delta variant (here) (here).

“In my opinion, the best way to avoid covid is to get vaccinated and to stick to public health guidelines around hand washing, mask wearing and social distancing,” Loscher said.

“There are only two ways to develop against COVID. One is to be naturally affected and the other is to be vaccinated. Vaccination is the better choice,” Dr Paul Offit, professor of pediatrics at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia told Reuters.

Reuters previously addressed the claim that young people are not at risk of COVID-19, viewable (here).

VERDICT

Missing context. There is no evidence to suggest that exercising and eating healthily alone can curb severe symptoms of COVID-19 or that exercise should be used as a substitute for a COVID-19 vaccine.

This article was produced by the Reuters Fact Check team. Read more about our fact-checking work here .