Contemplating a COVID party for your kids? It's still a bad idea
In the days before a vaccine for chicken pox became widely available, some parents would host "chicken pox parties" amidst an outbreak to try to ensure that their kids wouldn't be left out of the wave of infections. The thinking was that chicken pox was a mild disease for kids but worse for adults, and catching it early would provide a lifetime of natural immunity.
Now the idea of "chicken pox parties" is back â but this time, it's for COVID-19. The omicron variant seems less dangerous than earlier versions of the coronavirus and harder for kids to avoid now that they're back in school, so why not get it out of the way?
The Times posed this question to four COVID-19 experts, three of whom are also pediatricians who specialize in
