Amid reasonable fears about the coronavirus pandemic, there is also a much more dubious threat: “COVID parties.” How Cabling Explains in a good exploration of the subject, COVID parties (or “corona parties”) are events in which people are allegedly exposed to the coronavirus on purpose. Medical professionals and government officials have regularly warned about these parts, but on closer examination, the reports are generally unverified second-hand reports or direct errors.
However, despite numerous false alarms, the parties continue to appear on the news and social media. Last week, The New York Times and other media reported on a “COVID party” allegedly held in Texas. A recent Vox herd immunity story referenced in “rare but troubling” cases, citing a CNN article about alleged Alabama parties.
The COVID parts are the product of the particular confusion surrounding the coronavirus. High-level political figures have dismissed or downplayed the impact of the pandemic, leaving health officials and medical experts to warn Americans about the dangers of the virus. These experts can correctly prioritize condemning risky behavior, whether it’s happening or not, but in the process, inadvertently, they give those rumors more credibility than they deserve.
It is doubly confusing because the term also applies to innocently intended (but nonetheless reckless) pandemic-era meetings that ignore state or local social distancing rules. Sometimes these cases are ambiguous. On Twitter, an emergency medical services company referred to a “crown party” involving an infected person in Pennsylvania, for example. But in an email to The edge, a spokesperson confirmed that no one claimed to be intentionally looking for infection, they simply did not take the virus seriously.
For now, every story about people throwing parties to deliberately spread the coronavirus isn’t verified or discredited. Here’s an updated list of “COVID part” cases, along with what we really know about them.
San Antonio, Texas, July 12.
The claim: A 30-year-old man attended a “COVID party,” where people met with someone who tested positive for COVID-19 to assess whether the virus is “real.” The man believed it was a hoax until he contracted it and died in the hospital.
Reality: The man reportedly spoke to a nurse at the San Antonio Methodist Hospital before he died, telling him about the party and expressing regret: “I think I made a mistake. I thought this was a hoax, but it is not. “The nurse told medical director Jane Appleby, who in turn spoke to the media and recorded a video warning of the COVID parties.
But this is mainly unverifiable. The hospital did not identify the man, and contact trackers told the Times that they had no evidence for or against the existence of the party. That doesn’t mean Appleby was lying, but it’s also easy to see that the story is distorted or misinterpreted.
Fort Myers, Florida, July 6
The claim: Carsyn Leigh Davis, a 17-year-old girl with existing health problems, attended a “COVID party” organized by her local church. The event intentionally exposed about 100 children to the disease, and Davis contracted it. After her family tried probably futile hydroxychloroquine treatment, she died two weeks later.
Reality: How Snopes he writes, Davis’s death is very real. A medical report confirms that Davis attended a “church function” that broke the rules of social estrangement, and her parents gave her hydroxychloroquine shortly before taking her to the hospital. But there is no evidence that the church was trying to infect children, and the screenshots on its Facebook page simply show promotions for a youth “liberation party.” The church itself has called the allegations “false and defamatory,” and most news reports have removed the “COVID party” reference.
Tuscaloosa, Alabama, July 2
The claim: The youth organized multiple parties where the guests tried to catch the new coronavirus. People paid to attend the parties, which were allegedly organized in and around Tuscaloosa in early June, and the first guest to catch COVID-19 earned part of the revenue.
Reality: Tuscaloosa Fire Chief Randy Smith claimed to know about the festivities and alerted the City Council, which said unidentified doctors and state officials had corroborated the account. Role of the University of Alabama The crimson white He cited a doctor at an urgent care center who said his staff saw videos of “intentional” virus-catching parties involving UA students.
However, the University of Alabama found no evidence of this, and The crimson white it concluded that there was no “direct confirmation” from the parties. Cabling I learned that the clinic’s advice was a series of second-hand rumors passed on to the staff like a phone game. And it highlights the credibility that local officials identified several parties related to the sale of paid tickets and the video, but attendees were not confirmed or cited for breaking the rules of social distancing, and none of those videos were published. online.
North Carolina, May 18
The claim: Unidentified people reported that they attended “COVID-19 parties” in North Carolina to maximize their chances of contracting the disease and hopefully develop immunity.
Reality: This story is based in part on a warning from North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper, who called the parties “completely irresponsible and absolutely unacceptable” at a press conference. But Cooper never said that these parties existed. A journalist asked about the rumors of “COVID-19 meetings,” and Cooper, along with state director of Health and Human Services Mandy Cohen, confirmed that it would be a terrible idea if were happening. That’s not wrong, but it created an impression of certainty that it just wasn’t there.
A more specific report comes from Yolanda Enrich, a nurse practitioner at Novant Health Forsyth Medical Center. “People are really out there and trying to get the virus, so attending meetings, parties trying to maximize their chances of exposure,” Enrich reported. “They just go to meetings to deliberately become infected with the virus.” That said, she did not report people participation parties to get infected, or cite specific incidents. The Enrich branch of the Forsyth Medical Center did not respond to a request for more details.
Walla Walla County, Washington, May 6
The claim: At least 25 people told contact trackers that they had been to a COVID party, trying to sign up for COVID-19 and “get it over with.” Some new infections could be attributed to these parts.
Reality: Never happened. Walla Walla County Community Health Department Director Meghan DeBolt initially told reporters that “we asked about the contacts, and there are 25 people because: ‘We were at a COVID party.'” But health officials withdrew the claim a day later. “After receiving more information, we have discovered that there were no intentional COVID parties. Just innocent efforts, ”said DeBolt.
This goes to the heart of the problem. At this time, any full event could spread the virus without any malicious intent. And the holidays are far from the only reason COVID-19 is booming in the United States. “Overcast” events can occur in churches, meat packing plants, and many other places where people do not conform to the stereotype of reckless youth. There are many reasons to worry about the spread of the coronavirus, but “COVID parties” are not one of them.
