Coronavirus party


A coronavirus party is a gathering with the intention of catching COVID-19. The existence of this phenomenon is disputed. Outside the United States, for example in the Netherlands, the term "coronavirus party" or similar may refer to a regular party that is organized to rebel against social distancing rules and laws, without any intention of spreading the virus.

History

Governor Andy Beshear reported that young people were taking part in parties and testing positive for COVID-19. "The partygoers intentionally got together 'thinking they were invincible' and purposely defying state guidance to practice social distancing." A CNN headline on 25 March 2020 stated "A group of young adults held a coronavirus party in Kentucky to defy orders to socially distance. Now one of them has coronavirus". On the same day NPR published the headline "Kentucky Has 39 New Cases; 1 Person Attended A 'Coronavirus Party'". Both headlines misrepresented the content of the article and the quotes they used from Beshear who did not mention intentional parties for catching COVID-19, but that young people were attending parties and becoming sick with COVID-19.
On 6 May 2020 the Seattle Times reported that Meghan DeBold, director of the Department of Community Health in Walla Walla, Washington, said that contact tracing had revealed people wanting to get sick with COVID-19 and get it over with had attended COVID parties. DeBold is quoted as saying '"We ask about contacts, and there are 25 people because: 'We were at a COVID party'". An opinion piece for The New York Times by epidemiologist Greta Bauer on April 8, 2020 said she had heard "rumblings about people... hosting a version of 'chickenpox parties'... in an effort to catch the virus". Rolling Stone states that Bauer did not cite "direct evidence of the existence of these parties." The New York Times reported on May 6, 2020 that stories such as the Walla Walla Covid Party "may have been more innocent gatherings" and county health officials retracted their statements.

Response

Some news agencies considered COVID-19 parties to be a myth. Rolling Stone called "shaming people on the internet for not properly socially distancing" the favorite new American pastime. They state that these headlines are meant to be virally shared. Saying that young people attended parties where they caught COVID-19 which is "far more believable... version of events" than young people attending parties "for the purpose of contracting COVID-19". The Seattle Times article from Walla Walla backtracked the day after publishing their covid party story by stating they may not have been accurate.
Wired reported on supposed college students in Tuscaloosa, Alabama throwing parties with infected guests, then betting on the contagion that ensues. 'They put money in a pot and they try to get Covid,' said City Council member Sonya McKinstry. 'Whoever gets Covid first gets the pot. It makes no sense.'" Wired says that these stories spread like a game of telephone with "loose talk from public officials and disgracefully sloppy journalism". "It is, of course, technically impossible to rule out the existence of Covid parties. Maybe somewhere in this vast and complex nation there are some foolish people getting infected on purpose. It's also possible that the miasma of media coverage will coalesce into a vector of its own, inspiring Covid parties that otherwise would not have happened. But so far there's no hard evidence that even a single one has taken place—just a recurring cycle of breathless, unsubstantiated media coverage."
Investigator Ben Radford researched the claims from the media and states that there is nothing new to these stories, the folklore world has seen stories of people believing that getting inoculation against smallpox may turn people into cows. These stories cycle through social media and include, "'poisoned Halloween candy, suicide-inducing online games, Satanists, caravans of diseased migrants, evil clowns, and many others." Other childhood diseases such as chicken pox and measles in years before vaccines to prevent these illnesses, some parents would hold 'pox parties' which Radford claims are still "often promoted by anti-vaccination groups". "Assuming you have a willing and potentially infectious patient " holding a COVID-19 party would be problematic for many reasons, how do you know the person really has COVID-19 and not the flu? How would you know their viral load? "he whole premise of such parties is dubious."
All the stories reported in the media currently "have all the typical ingredients of unfounded moral panic rumors", according to Radford. Teachers, police, school districts, governors "who publicize the information out of an abundance of caution. Journalists eagerly run with a sensational story, and there's little if any sober or skeptical follow-up". On 10 July 2020 a WOAI-TV station from San Antonio, Texas, ran a story interviewing the Chief Medical Officer of Methodist Healthcare, Dr. Jane Appleby, who according to WOAI said she had heard from someone that a patient told their nurse right before dying that they had attended a covid party in order to see if the virus was real or not, and now they regretted attending the party. Radford writes that this is "classic folklore tale presented in news media as fact"... "It's an anonymous third-hand story with nary a verifiable name or claim to be found". Even the 'deathbed conversation' ending to the story is a "classic legend trope".
Radford and co-host Celestia Ward discuss the details of the possibility of COVID-19 parties on the podcast "Squaring the Strange", Ward was dubious about the gambling claims on the stories of the first person to get Covid after the party wins a pot of money. She could not see how you would determine the rules, if someone really wanted to win, "couldn't they just go hang out at bars without a mask for a while?... How would you know they picked up the virus at the party and not somewhere else? How do you know they didn't already have the virus before coming to the party?" Radford said non-medical people can't tell how much an infected person could be shedding the virus at any specific time, "you might not catch the virus standing next to someone for 15-minutes... but need to do deep-kissing" to make sure you get a good chance of contracting COVID-19.