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Alabama Students Attending ‘COVID Parties’ to See who Contracts the Virus First

If you thought the planking and skullbreaker challenges were dangerous, get a load of what students in Tuscaloosa, Alabama are doing: Young coronavirus patients are hosting COVID parties to see which attendee can catch the virus first. “They put money in a pot and they try to get COVID,” says Tuscaloosa City Councilor Sonya McKinstry. “Whoever gets COVID first gets the pot. It makes no sense.”

Fire Chief Randy Smith admits he initially thought stories of COVID parties were just unfounded rumors — but he’s since talked to local doctors, who confirm they’ve treated patients who caught virus at one of the get-togethers.

While McKinstry says the city is “trying to break up any parties that we know of,” she admits there’s only so much that can be done. “When you’re dealing with the mind frame of people who are intentionally doing stuff like that and they’re spreading it intentionally, how can you truly fight something that people are constantly trying to promote?,” she says. What’s the most foolish thing you did as a teen?

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