It’s been relatively common, for many years, for some parents to organise “chickenpox parties” at the home of an infected child, so that their kids can get it over and done with while they’re young (it can be dangerous in adults).
Recently, though, it’s been reported, here in the UK, that they’re doing the same thing with swine flu. That beggars belief. Chickenpox in a child is more nuisance than anything else, swine flu is potentially fatal.
The logic, if you can call it that, is that the kids will catch the virus now, while it’s relatively innocuous (famous last words), then when the forecast winter return of the virus happens (though bear in mind that there’s not the slightest indication that it’s actually going to go away in the first place), they’ll be immune. There’s a problem with that.
Flu viruses routinely mutate, which is why a new vaccine is needed every autumn, and the anticipation is that the second round of this flu will be far more serious – and fatal – than the first one. And, of course, if it does mutate it will be a different virus.
That means that anyone who had the first version will still be susceptible to the new, improved, version, so all these idiot parents are doing is putting their children at risk needlessly. A little knowledge truly is a dangerous thing.
