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Seattleshouldhaverun t1_itpovan wrote

They had to do a study to show this? Considering around 75-80% of the people that died were over 65 and in poor health it's not exactly rocket science to say if you were in good health you would probably not need to be hospitalized.

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KuriousKhemicals t1_itprhq6 wrote

It's hard to parse from just the abstract if they did their analysis correctly, but they did say they were looking for an "effect modifier" which I would interpret as an interaction effect. That is to say, vaccination is designed to reduce your hospitalization risk, and physical activity may also do this even in unvaccinated people, but the effect of having both on your side is more than just adding up the two factors individually.

Again, I can't tell from what I'm able to access if they actually showed that, but it sounds like that is what they are claiming.

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Fargeen_Bastich t1_itqihda wrote

They used the unvaccinated in each exercise group as the reference. If you open Table 2 you'll see there is no p-value for the unvaccinated in each group. So they did not compare someone unvaccinated who has a high level of exercise to someone vaccinated with a low level of exercise, for instance. (At least from what I could quickly see)

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apocalypsedg t1_itpxkqw wrote

We need to be super careful with drawing that conclusion from statistics like these.

For example, when it was said that 78% of those that were hospitalized were overweight or obese, it sounds like the risk of getting it as an obese person is approx. 4x higher than a healthy weight person. Only when you add the context that 73% of the population is overweight or obese does it become clear that the increase in risk is not that extreme, and healthy weight people are at greater risk than it initially seemed.

Credit to Hank Green for pointing this out a few days ago.

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elixirsatelier t1_itq1pxz wrote

Stuff like this has made politicized science into 99% bunk sorting and should be called out more forcefully in academics. This is a basic integrity failure that has become a norm.

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I_am_Enos t1_itppmfr wrote

Imagine that. People who exercise are generally healthier. Wouldn't have ever guessed that.

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IndigoFenix t1_itqyksm wrote

A strong immune system does tend to multiply the effectiveness of a vaccine though, not just add extra resistance on top of it, because vaccination works though the immune system.

A strong immune system is like having fit and healthy soldiers, while a vaccine is giving them experience and knowledge in fighting a particular enemy. Either one is better than neither, but if you've got both they build off each other.

You can see this in practice by comparing vaccinated and unvaccinated relative illness percentages in different age groups; vaccination reduces infection and illness in all age groups, but the efficacy is higher in younger people. Which seems unfair since they generally need it less, but that's just the way it works.

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brainburger t1_itqfyl8 wrote

The study does directly propose the matter of non-causal correlation in the introduction. The purpose seems to be to test whether its that, or is it that exercise enhances the vaccine.

>Background Both vaccination and physical activity have been shown to independently decrease the likelihood of severe COVID-19 infection.

>Objective To assess the association between regular physical activity and vaccination against COVID-19 among healthcare workers.

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Kailaylia t1_itqsfqq wrote

Conversely, people who are generally healthier, exercise more.

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brainburger t1_itqx2by wrote

Imagine if it transpired that exercise degraded the vaccine though. That would be worth knowing.

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Kailaylia t1_itqy3jo wrote

That's a painful notion. I'm just glad it does not work that way as I cannot stay healthy without exercise.

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brainburger t1_itskwp7 wrote

It might have just meant abstaining from exertion for some days after vaccination. That's speculation though.

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Kailaylia t1_itsoxjl wrote

In Australia young men were being told to take it easy for a while after getting the Pfizer vaccine. - because of the possibility of it causing heart problems.

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Potential_Limit_9123 t1_itrrcwp wrote

If they really wanted to do something, they could have created three arms and had people exercise for different levels (and maybe throw in a non-exercising group). Until then, healthy user bias rears its ugly head.

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DrWynnewin t1_itpkwis wrote

I'm glad science has caught up to the rest of the world that had been screaming this for years, while getting shouted down by people living in ivory towers of unearned moral superiority.

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brainburger t1_itqrtm2 wrote

Has the world been screaming that exercise enhances the vaccination? I think I missed that. Or perhaps I couldn't hear over all the people yelling that healthy people don't die of Covid.

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lupuscapabilis t1_itrd90m wrote

>Has the world been screaming that exercise enhances the vaccination? I think I missed that. Or perhaps I couldn't hear over all the people yelling that healthy people don't die of Covid.

It's been a fact from the start that countries whose populations were in better shape were doing better against covid. The data has been shown many times. A common response to why the US had worse results than other places was "that other place has much less obesity."

Obese people do not have a lot of physical activity.

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brainburger t1_itrqja9 wrote

Yes fitness affects covid prognoses. So does the vaccine. What this study looks at is do these effects interract with each other?

I'll just invent some numbers for illustration. Let's say that the vaccine makes you 10% safer, and exercise also makes you 10% safer. You might expect both to make you 20% safer. But what is that number? It might be 15%. This study indicates that the whole is greater than the sum, so call it 25% in my example.

This is useful to know as we could give advice to patients to either take exercise or rest up after having the vaccine. We don't know the true effect until we look carefully at the numbers.

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DrWynnewin t1_itqvqlh wrote

Blah Blah blah.... political disagreement.... blah, blah, blah. It's too nice of a day to fall for the trap.

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brainburger t1_itqy0mp wrote

Sorry was just making the point that the paper acknowledges that fitness affects covid prognosis, and so does the vaccine.

The question is does exercise affect the vaccine? It's not inconceivable that it could reduce its value.

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DrWynnewin t1_itr0bt6 wrote

For sure. My original point was just venting frustrations caused by pretentious people shouting others out of the conversation early on, just for suggesting any course of action other than sitting in your houses in fear... away from sunlight.

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elpajaroquemamais t1_itsf1wo wrote

That’s by far the best way to deal with COVID if you have it. No one is suggesting to exercise COVID away. Just those who exercise fight it off better even when sitting in the house away from sunlight.

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lostoneY t1_itpni78 wrote

Here we go again bois, are you ready?

Exercise is good! Wow!

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boludo1 t1_itppbzq wrote

It’s almost like being in decent shape and staying active is better than being overweight and sedentary. Insane!

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brainburger t1_itqxher wrote

Imagine if exercise degraded the vaccines effectiveness. That would be worth knowing.

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[deleted] t1_itpoxf1 wrote

Never had the shot, workout 15 hrs a week. Had delta September a year ago, and honestly I’ve had worse hangovers.

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Goo-Goo-GJoob t1_itr9l4w wrote

That's a marginally interesting anecdote. I wonder if you think it means anything at a population level.

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_Badlands_ t1_itqoqe1 wrote

Same here. My partner and I both workout regularly and eat healthy, we got it early last year and it was like a 24 hour flu. Our roommate who brought it home was double-vaxxed and was laid up in bed for 9 days, however she was overweight, didn’t eat well or exercise, and drank too much.

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NOT_MartinShkreli t1_itpm6uk wrote

What about exercise alone and getting / not getting Covid vs. any of the vaccine groups?

We’re really missing the boat on all this stuff. Does your immune system work? Probably.

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darkpaladin t1_itpoozi wrote

I doubt it matters much on infection but certainly your prognosis would be better. That's true for just about any disease though. Active, well nourished, non obese people tend to recover from illness faster.

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Ok_Letter_9284 t1_itppyka wrote

What is “risk of hospitalization” as opposed to actual hospitalization?

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KuriousKhemicals t1_itprpy4 wrote

Risk applies to the whole group that was measured, some were hospitalized and some weren't, so being in that group gives you a certain risk. In this context it's essentially equivalent to "rate."

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Ok_Letter_9284 t1_itpsy2d wrote

I see. They didn’t give anybody the vaccine. They used other studies and inferred results. I hate that these studies get as much credit as primary studies.

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jl_theprofessor t1_itpl6ox wrote

Anecdotally, I’m fully vaccinated. I work out about 8 hours a week on average with a combination of aerobic and strength training exercise. Like tonight ran five miles then lifted weights for half an hour. I really haven’t been sick since last year.

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thejml2000 t1_itpnoyi wrote

Though I only do about half that (but all of the vaxx though), I haven’t actually been sick in the last 5+ years. It’s awesome. Cheers to being healthy and active!

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jl_theprofessor t1_itqmk6m wrote

I think the central goal is 150 minutes right? Sounds like you're way above the population yourself.

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lupuscapabilis t1_itrdzxd wrote

It's amazing what it can do for you. My wife and I work out every weekday, have good diets, and are very rarely sick. It's strange to hear people say that masks have kept them from getting colds all the time. I'm not sure they realize that treating their body right will in fact prevent them from having colds all the time.

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Bacon_boy86 t1_itprae3 wrote

Who knew exercise made you healthier?

All this sub posts are obvious research articles. "New research shows you bleed when shot".

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brainburger t1_itqsrux wrote

Everyone knew exercise makes you healthier.

The question here is different though, Does exercise enhance the effectiveness of the covid vaccine?

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kingp43x t1_itqdavc wrote

the "person" posting them has over 10 million post karma

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rickymourke82 t1_itphodw wrote

Seems like a better post for r/commonsense. Not much scientific discussion to be had about quantifying common knowledge. I guess it does help confirm that broad based lockdowns as public policy are counterintuitive and most likely do more harm to overall public health than good.

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is0ph t1_itpjluj wrote

It’s not difficult to achieve a high level of physical activity (150mn + per week) while locked down.

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rickymourke82 t1_itpnjzw wrote

People find it difficult to remain physically active under normal circumstances. Add in a pandemic where we were being made to think we could hide from a virus and door dash our way to being an even more unhealthy society, and I’d disagree with your take. We made it extremely hard on people in dense urban populations to do anything but rot in their own misery and create habits far worse than what the virus would have been on them (statistically speaking).

Edit: typo

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thejml2000 t1_itpo78g wrote

Lockdowns actually helped prevent spread quite a bit.. when people actually did them. If everyone actually did it, it would have greatly reduced the impact of Covid, but people can’t follow directions or be bothered to give a crap about their neighbors and elderly.

They also don’t mean you don’t workout. I know I did a lot of jogging, calisthenics and Ring Fit during lockdown. Working from home during that period gave me lots of extra free time to stay in shape.

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Ok_Letter_9284 t1_itpq57z wrote

This comment is so dumb. You believe fewer ppl would die if the virus spreads SLOWER??

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thejml2000 t1_itq0ci6 wrote

Um, I hope you just forgot there “/s”, because that’s kinda common sense and well proven. You slow the spread and you don’t overwhelm the Health care system.

Remember when hospitals were out of beds and running low on oxygen? That wouldn’t have been a problem if it spread slower.

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Ok_Letter_9284 t1_itq0u1m wrote

Hospitals get overwhelmed during flu season. It happens all the time even when there’s no pandemic. Also, are you claiming that a significant amount of deaths from covid were caused by inaccessible hospitals?! Because that’s patently false.

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thejml2000 t1_itq1qjp wrote

This is just one of many reports/stories about it.

It’s really not something that’s up for debate, it happened quite a bit.

Also, brining up hospitals getting overwhelmed during flu season is not helping your point. Anytime someone who needs care can’t get it you don’t get good results… if not getting care didn’t have an impact, then the people didn’t really need the care in the first place.

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Ok_Letter_9284 t1_itq2azj wrote

The article is talking about ppl dying from socioeconomic issues and “accessibility” to healthcare. Not that the hospitals were too full.

I have a heart condition. I go to the hospital a lot. At no point during the pandemic was it too crowded (Cleveland, OH). Anecdotal, true, but heres something that’s not.

If hospital fullness were a concern, then lockdowns would be LOCAL based on current beds available. Not case count and not state or county wide.

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brainburger t1_itqu5sa wrote

Just everybody seems to be jumping to this conclusion. Is it common sense though?

Why should exercise affect the value of the vaccine? It affects the risk of covid, we know that. That's a different question though.

I could imagine the paper concluding that exercise affects covid, and that vaccinations affect Covid, but that exercise does not affect the vaccine's effect on covid. The vaccine acts directly on the immune system. It could easily be the same without the exercise.

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Typical-Oil-8743 t1_itprmpw wrote

OR! Regular physical activity boosts immune symptom responses. Because you know it does and there’s only 100 years of direct evidence to prove it

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FastFourierTerraform t1_itq2j5w wrote

No no, clearly it must supercharge the vaccine. That's the only possible way to interpret the evidence!

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brainburger t1_itqsxqx wrote

I mean, the study seems to be specifically about that question. Is there mere correlation, or causation? There seems to be causation.

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Typical-Oil-8743 t1_itqjqkq wrote

I suppose if we must. Some of these recent articles and titles are killing me. Like the one about “lab tests show ivermectin doesn’t help in Covid-19 recovery”… No, the test said it has little to no impact on mild to moderate sars-cov-2 but shows promise in treatment of severe sars-cov-2 and “long Covid “. Like why would you even try to lie about what the test results were? A treatment for illness should be applauded no matter what it is and not be victim to political propaganda

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brainburger t1_itqtbw8 wrote

The title of this study is clearer than the title of this submission:

>Association between regular physical activity and the protective effect of vaccination against SARS-CoV-2 in a South African case–control study

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Herdazian_Lopen t1_itqnebx wrote

Breaking: People who live more healthy lifestyle are more healthy!

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brainburger t1_itqv31c wrote

But more interestingly, it seems that exercise makes the vaccine interact with our immune systems differently, and more effectively.

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Herdazian_Lopen t1_itqzans wrote

How differently?

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brainburger t1_itrhzvf wrote

It had been observed that exercise makes the vaccine produce more antibodies. That's different and separate from fitness reducing symptoms in the infected. This study seems to be about the rate of hospitalisation, following that.

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Mononym_Music t1_itps4qo wrote

So working out and being healthy keeps you from being sick..... Whats the point of the jab?

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brainburger t1_itqsiqd wrote

The point of the jab is that it reduces the risk of severe symptoms and of transmission.

We already knew that physical fitness makes a person less likely to have severe symptoms. This study seems to be about whether exercise enhances the vaccine, which is a different question.

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Inner_Replacement_10 t1_itpz08e wrote

Physical activity will boost the immune system of non vaccinated people and lower covid cases. Really?

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brainburger t1_itqthfl wrote

Yes. However, will it influence the effectiveness of the vaccine?

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MTL_t3k t1_itsuiwd wrote

Whoa. Stop the presses. Being physically active actually improves overall health and makes one less susceptible to illness?

What next, that young, active healthy people who get COVID-19 irrespective of 'vaccine' status are at practically no risk of requiring hospitalisation?

That is about as crazy as claiming that people who comsume a healthy, plant-based diet have 73% lower odds of developing moderate-to-severe illness from COVID-19 irrespective of 'vaccine' status.

Plant-based diets, pescatarian diets and COVID-19 severity: a population-based case–control study in six countries
https://nutrition.bmj.com/content/4/1/257

"After adjusting for basic demographic characteristics, medical specialty, and health behaviours (smoking, physical activity) in model 2, participants who followed plant-based diets had 73% lower odds of moderate-to-severe COVID-19 (OR 0.27, 95% CI 0.10 to 0.81) compared with participants who did not follow plant-based diets."

Stop it with all this crazy talk about health and nutrition and just give me my umpteenth booster while I chow down on my triple bacon cheeseburger over here on the couch already.

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Easeondowntheroad2 t1_ittat1v wrote

Wait, wait, wait are you telling me mild to moderate exercise is healthy? And here I thought we were just potatoes who could ambulate.

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briix1 t1_itrkuyx wrote

Wait, so hospital admission amongst vaccinated people? but the vaccines is safe and effective....

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Wagamaga OP t1_itpgo94 wrote

Regular physical activity may boost the effectiveness of the COVID-19 jab, with the level of protection afforded against serious infection rising in tandem with the amount of physical activity done, suggests research published online in the British Journal of Sports Medicine.

There’s now convincing evidence that regular physical activity helps ward off the consequences of serious COVID-19 infection, reducing the risk of hospital admission, intensive care, assisted ventilation or death. Similarly, vaccination also minimises these risks.

Previously published research on the additive effects of physical activity on vaccination against various infections, suggests that it enhances the body’s antibody response, but it’s not known if this might also apply to SARS-CoV-2, the virus responsible for COVID-19 infection.

To try and find out, the researchers drew on anonymised medical records, and wearable activity tracker data for healthcare workers belonging to a medical insurance scheme as well as a health promotion and behavioural change programme.

Participants were mapped to physical activity categories using their average monthly levels in the 2 years preceding the start of the study: under 60 minutes of a week (low); at least 60-149 minutes (medium); and 150 minutes + (high).

COVID-19 swab test results were analysed for 53,771 participants with low levels of physical activity, 62,721 with medium levels, and 79,952 with high levels.

Complete health, COVID-19 vaccination (mid-February to end of October 2021; Jannsen Ad26.COV2.S COVID-19) and physical activity data were obtained for 196,444 adults who tested negative for SARS-CoV-2.

Vaccine effectiveness against COVID-19 among fully vaccinated people in the low physical activity category was 60%. In other words, the risk of hospital admission was reduced by 60% in this group.

Comparable risk reductions for those in the medium and high physical activity groups were, respectively, 72% and 86%.

Those who were fully vaccinated and who clocked up high weekly levels of physical activity were nearly 3 times less likely to be admitted to hospital than those who were vaccinated but in the low physical activity category.

Similarly, those in the medium physical activity category were nearly 1.5 times less likely to be admitted to hospital with COVID-19 infection.

“The findings suggest a possible dose–response where high levels of physical activity were associated with higher vaccine effectiveness,” write the researchers.

https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/968666

−1

LogiHiminn t1_itph3ao wrote

How about those who are physically active without the vaccine? Since the majority who had severe covid infections were overweight or physically frail, it would be good to see that data, too. Anecdotally, I was extremely active (weightlifting 6x a week, jujitsu 5x a week), got covid (before vaccines), and was mildly inconvenienced for a day.

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Interested_Redditor t1_itph3b5 wrote

Regular physical activity makes literally every person more healthy and better prepared to fight any disease.

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brainburger t1_itqukkt wrote

Maybe not any disease. i seem to recall that Spanish Flu affected younger, healthy people more seriously than less healthy.

In any case, this is about the effect of exercise on the vaccine

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jjsyk23 t1_itpv85f wrote

Are you trying to tell me that the healthier and more in shape you are the more likely you are to avoid the hospital?

−1

brainburger t1_itqurlb wrote

I think the paper is trying to tell us that exercise makes the vaccine more effective, as well as being generally beneficial and reducing covid risk in and of itself.

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cubeincubes t1_itq4dah wrote

Can we call it a vaccine or not?

−1

echochambers_suck t1_itqigtn wrote

Regular physical activity has been shown to have positive effects on health and immunity. Is this really an article?

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brainburger t1_itquy3o wrote

Faaackin hell. Nearly every comment is the same The paper is about whether exercise affects the value of the vaccine, as well as affecting Covid directly.

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lupuscapabilis t1_itre8s8 wrote

Well yes, because physical activity keeps your body in better health which literally helps things like vaccines work. We've known this forever.

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brainburger t1_itrjgit wrote

Not quite. We knew that both exercise and vaccines affect covid prognoses separately and likely too that they have overlapping effects. This study makes that point in the introduction.

However it is also the case that exercise increases antibody production after vaccination and that reduces hospitalisation rates. We didn't know that without looking specifically for it in the stats. It was entirely possible for exercise to reduce antibody production, or reduce the effectiveness of the antibodies. We would not necessarily know that, if the overall effect was beneficial.

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SunChipMan t1_itqx4nt wrote

I'm sure there's still plenty of people who would rather take livestock medication than take a walk.

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iperus0351 t1_itr4rn7 wrote

So when your body works your body works?

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West-Negotiation-716 t1_itrdw5e wrote

So getting exercise reduces a person's chances of hospitalization?

Who knew?!

−1

Hyperion1722 t1_itpugbx wrote

Why state the obvious? It has been a common knowledge that physical activity boost the immune system of the body. If this is a science research, I think I have to lower my expectations on how research is being done. Pathetic to say the least.

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