Covid-19 Parties

What do you think of people getting together in order to purposely be exposed? I think their idea is to get it over with. I remember when we used to do that with our kids with chickenpox. Chicken pox, like this virus, is way better to get when you are young. It was serious to get if you were over 20, they used to tell us back when I was a kid. Is that why these folks are doing this?

Quote

In Walla Walla County, health officials said some of their COVID-19 cases involve people who exposed themselves to the coronavirus on purpose.

Health officials concerned about rising number of 'COVID-19 parties' in Washington

[emtb2rn, BSN, RN, EMT-B]

I think it’s a stupid idea myself.

Are they gonna stay isolated for at least 2 weeks afterwards? If not, see comment above.

[Emergent, RN]

1 minute ago, emtb2rn said:

I think it’s a stupid idea myself.

Are they gonna stay isolated for at least 2 weeks afterwards? If not, see comment above.

Yes, I was wondering about that. It's one thing to purposely expose yourself, if that is what you think is right to do. It would be an entirely different thing to go out into society, possibly exposing vulnerable people.

[lifelearningrn, BSN, RN]

I wondered when this was going start happening. Since we don't know if exposure means lasting immunity, why risk it?

[Mywords1]

Is this fake news? A joke? Very hard to believe, but then there's many stupid people around.

[lifelearningrn, BSN, RN]

Just now, Mywords1 said:

Is this fake news? A joke? Very hard to believe, but then there's many stupid people around.

Considering it's in Washington state, I wouldn't doubt it. WA has a large anti-vax population and having parties to expose their children to communicable diseases is definitely in their toolbox. It's not a stretch that they'd take this route.

I have no real data to back up my claim.. just a hunch. I could be wrong.

[Emergent, RN]

From the article:

Quote

Officials believe people are intentionally exposing themselves as part of a “herd immunity strategy” to build population immunity.

Dr. Paul Pottinger with UW Infectious Diseases said there’s a danger spreading it to vulnerable populations like people over 60 and people with compromised immune systems. Plus, doctors said immunity isn’t a sure thing.

[Daisy4RN]

Yeah, I think this is a very bad idea. These folks -if they are comparing it to Chicken pox- aren't really looking at the big picture. I had someone actually say that to me, that they were trying to catch it from someone, I tried to explain that you don't know how serious it could be for you but of course people don't want to listen cuz they are sooo smart.

Sadly, I think that sounds like something some people would do because I've heard random people say they would rather just get it now when they feel they could beat it, or they could get medical care, or for other reasons. I don't get it, but people will believe what they want to believe.

[A Hit With The Ladies, BSN, RN]

The genie is out of the bottle. Our whole country is a Coronavirus party now. You can only care so much before you flat-out don't.

[Daisy4RN]

1 minute ago, A Hit With The Ladies said:

The genie is out of the bottle. Our whole country is a Coronavirus party now. You can only care so much before you flat-out don't.

this is true but I still would not intentionally try to give the dx to myself

[A Hit With The Ladies, BSN, RN]

I wouldn't, either

If longer-term immunity was a sure thing, and the local area hospitals not currently among the more overwhelmed, deliberate self-exposure of young healthy people who are unlikely to fall deathly ill and who also have the means and willingness to fully and carefully self-isolate for several weeks afterward might actually be a useful strategy that puts the breaks on the ease of the disease's spread in the area in the months to come. That's also assuming neither a vaccine nor an effective treatment regimen is right around the corner, and that the US doesn't get its act together between testing, contact tracing, follow up, and targeted isolation to effectively slow the spread of disease as other countries have.

For my money, that's too many assumptions. Anyway, I tend to doubt that the kinds of young folks having covid parties are also the type to carefully self-isolate (which would include the time from inoculation until the first symptoms, which takes days and seems to vary). But as always, I could be wrong.

10 hours ago, Emergent said:

What do you think of people getting together in order to purposely be exposed? I think their idea is to get it over with. I remember when we used to do that with our kids with chickenpox. Chicken pox, like this virus, is way better to get when you are young. It was serious to get if you were over 20, they used to tell us back when I was a kid. Is that why these folks are doing this?

Health officials concerned about rising number of 'COVID-19 parties' in Washington

I think it's moronic, for many reasons.

[Davey Do]

Well, the Black Plaque had the Flagellates and the Covid-19 has the Par-Tayers!

I feel sorry for the healthcare professionals who have to take care of these mor... patients.

Edited May 11, 2020 by DTWriter

[beachynurse, ASN, BSN]

I think that these people are very foolish, especially since some of those at the so called party could end up fatalities. I wouldn’t risk my life like that. Plus there isn’t enough known about this virus to know if there is immunity after recovery.

[Leader25, ASN, BSN, RN]

This ranks right along with the girl licking a public toilet seat just to get noticed on social media.I hope they dont expect to be taken care of by already overworked frontline staff.