The idea of organizing "Covid-19 parties" to infect participants who are then supposedly immunized against the disease is "extremely dangerous" , authorities in the US state of Washington warned on Wednesday. ). "Gatherings like this in the midst of the pandemic can be extremely dangerous and put people at increased risk of hospitalization and even death," said John Wiesman, health official for the northwestern state.
Read also: Donald Trump wants to "reopen" the country but leaves the decision to the States
"Furthermore, it is unclear whether the people who recovered from Covid-19 have long-term protection ," he said. "There are still many things we do not know about this virus, including health issues that may persist after infection . " This warning from John Wiesman comes in response to reports that a hundred cases of coronavirus contamination are linked to "Covid-19 parties" held in Walla Walla county. The purpose of these gatherings is to bring together patients with Covid-19 with uninfected participants, in the hope that the latter will develop the disease and then a form of immunity.
According to Meghan DeBolt, health official for Walla Walla County, 400 km southeast of Seattle, the follow-up of the contacts of the infected people showed that some of them had deliberately exposed themselves to the virus during such parties . "We don't know when it is happening, it's only after the fact that we hear about these cases," she told a local newspaper. "We are asking for the list of people with whom they were in contact and there are 25 of them because " we were at a Covid party ", she laments. The United States is the country most affected by the new coronavirus, with more than 1.2 million cases recorded and 73,000 deaths.
Read also: LIVE - Coronavirus: 278 additional deaths in 24 hours, Sarthe goes “green”
