Intentionally Giving Kids Chicken Pox a Bad Idea

An advertisement for chickenpox-infected lollipops appearing last month on Facebook quickly became popular among parents who oppose vaccinating their children against the disease, The New York Times reports.


“I have PayPal and plenty of spit and suckers,” the message read, according to the Times. “It works too because that’s how we got it! Our round was FedEx’d from Arizona. We’ve spread cooties to Cookeville, Knoxville and Louisiana!”


Other parents on the message board then began posting requests for shipments of a variety of chickenpox-infected items, including towels, rags, and children’s clothing. By giving the contaminated items to their children, the parents believe their kids will build up natural immunity against chickenpox — a method they believe is much safer than vaccination.


A pox party is an activity where parents put their children around others infected with a virus in order for them to get infected and thus build up immunity.


More recently Facebook groups have appeared to try to connect parents seeking the virus for their own kids, instead of getting them a traditional vaccine.


Some parents have even tried mailing lollipops coated in infected saliva.


Doctors say that probably won't spread chicken pox because the virus can't live long outside the body, but it can spread other infections.


Fergie says the chicken pox vaccine has made great strides in decreasing the number of outbreaks and forcing children to contract the virus is misguided.


"People are forgetting that we used to have more than 10,000 hospitalizations [yearly] before we had a vaccine," said Fergie.


"It's an irrational fear. It just doesn't make logical sense," said Dr. Ernest Buck.


Buck deals with concerned parents in his pediatric practice.


He says they often bring concerns about vaccines, but he says vaccines have been proven safe, while the viruses themselves have proven to be deadly in the past.


"It's hundreds or thousands of times safer to get the vaccine than run the risk of the real disease," Buck said.


"It's sad. You're putting your child at risk for death at risk of infection and of hospitalization for something we can now prevent," Fergie said.


Officials at Driscoll say because vaccination isn't an emergency parents should not bring children there for the treatments.


Doctors say to contact your child's primary physician to schedule a vaccination.