Can Exercise Fend Off COVID-19?

Has there ever been a time when more people were trying to get in shape? Fast? COVID-19, which is particularly cruel to people who are obese, is a powerful motivator. But can exercise really protect us from the virus’s worst outcomes? The answer, according to the New York Times, is “maybe.” The newspaper reports on several studies that attempt to correlate exercise with more robust immune systems, and sums things up with this quote from James Turner, co-author of the 2018 review about exercise and immunity and also a professor of health science at the University of Bath: “there is no or limited reliable evidence for exercise directly increasing the chance of developing any kind of viral infection.”