> You don't have to go if you don't want to...

Except that these people go there and then go home and spread it to their family and other friends. They go to grocery stores and other locations and touch things or cough/sneeze it in to the air. It's never about one person's individual choice.

> Surely your indignation would be better directed at employers, schools and others who are requiring in-person attendance.

Yes this deserves it as well but that does not negate the concerns

This kind of answer shows why covid is hitting so hard in america. "I do whatever I want, you do whatever you want"

it's not about the individual, what he wants or do. It's about this individual spreading the virus to the community later on.

It makes me sad seeing a community I’d otherwise regard as intelligent being so profoundly ignorant.

But I also acknowledge this is a western culture issue more than one of intelligence alone.

Discouraging nonetheless. We’ve really messed up.

It seems terribly unfair to call it profound ignorance. As you say, it's a values difference. If you remember learning about "individualism", that's what it means; it's the idea that the collective doesn't have unbounded authority to tell individuals what to do.

> You don't have to go if you don't want to.

Are you implying that the people going to these speakeasy gyms are then self-quarantining and not interacting with people who did not go to the gym? Because if not, then this is a non sequitur of a response.

> Surely your indignation would be better directed at employers, schools and others who are requiring in-person attendance.

Except OP is not about employers, schools and others.

Interacting with other people is a two-way street. If you are afraid someone across from you might have been to one of these gyms, then walk away from them.

Because of community networks and a contagious disease, that's effectively asking me to quarantine all the time.

Now you're on the right track. Imagine how a daily churchgoer feels.

And if they go up to someone like a cashier?

I'm okay with this answer as long as the people who go to the gym aren't allowed in the grocery store, bank, on public transport.... Because I do have to go there whether I want to or not. Give any gym-goer a 2 week temporary tattoo on their forehead so I know to avoid them. Then we're cool.

You'll have to talk to your local grocery store or bank manager about that.

I actually edited out a /sarcasm because I thought it was that obvious. Oh boy.