‘COVID parties’ are a pandemic urban legend that won’t go away – By Adi Robertson (The Verge) / July 22 2020
People aren’t intentionally catching the coronavirus
Amid hosts of reasonable fears about the coronavirus pandemic, there’s also one far more dubious threat: “COVID parties.” As Wired explains in a good exploration of the topic, COVID parties (or “corona parties”) are events where people supposedly expose themselves to the coronavirus on purpose. Medical professionals and government officials have periodically warned about these parties, but on closer examination, the reports are usually unverified secondhand reports or outright mistakes.
Despite numerous false alarms, however, the parties keep cropping up in news stories and social media. Last week, The New York Times and other outlets reported on a “COVID party” supposedly held in Texas. A recent Vox story about herd immunity referenced “rare but concerning” instances, citing a CNN article about supposed parties in Alabama.
COVID parties are a product of the particular confusion around the coronavirus. High-level political figures have dismissed or minimized the pandemic’s impact, leaving health officials and medical experts to warn Americans about the dangers posed by the virus. These experts may rightly prioritize condemning risky behavior whether it’s happening or not, but in the process, inadvertently give those rumors more credence than they deserve.
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