Self-infecting to 'get through it' is an individualistic approach for those outside the risk groups and will appeal to different degrees based on cultural norms

Self-infecting to 'get through it' is an individualistic approach for those outside the risk groups and will appeal to different degrees based on cultural norms and government policies in different countries. It risks creating a higher transmission rate - initially for the individual and their community, and then across wider populations - and that could overwhelm health services, leading to insufficient care coverage and ultimately unnecessary harm & deaths. Developing herd immunity is a useful eventual population-wide goal but it mustn't be rushed since the virus can require intensive care and have fatal consequences for at-risk groups. Unvaccinated chicken pox has a fatality rate less than 0.01% for children and 0.02% for adults[0][1] while COVID-19 has been estimated anywhere between 1% and 5% and is certainly higher than that for those in older age[2]. It is these higher fatality rates for at-risk populations which make the idea of intentionally spreading the virus dangerous to the community due to their potential to increase load on health services. It might be sensible and responsible to re-title this post to 'Warn HN: Discourage Corona parties'. There's also some risk involved by spreading awareness of the idea of a Corona party, unfortunately. [0] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_human_disease_case_fatality_rates https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_human_disease_case_fat... [1] - https://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/pubs/pinkbook/varicella.html https://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/pubs/pinkbook/varicella.html [2] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coronavirus_disease_2019#Prognosis https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coronavirus_disease_2019#Progn...