The idea isn't new. Remember 'chickenpox parties?' Here's why doctors say you shouldn't get infected on purpose to 'get it over with.'
reached about 60 million cases from April 2009 to April 2010 in the U.S. Some 12,469 deaths were recorded in the U.S. during that time period.
"There is no guarantee you'll have a mild case," Van Groningen said."Some people still get really sick and need to come to the hospital. Others feel really miserable at home. Some patients say it's worse than the worst flu they ever had." Cancer, transplant patients and people with weakened immune systems are susceptible to infection, including COVID-19. By deliberately getting infected with COVID-19, you may be healthy, but you may spread it to someone who can’t fight off the virus. Le said, according to scientific data, the natural immunity one would build up by becoming infected does not provide any more immunity than a vaccine would.
Another problem? It’s not clear how long natural immunity lasts after someone has been infected with COVID-19. Davey Smith, MD, translational research virologist at UCSD said in aalso said to take into account variants. Just because your body reacted one way to an earlier variant or mutation doesn’t mean your immune system will react the same way to the delta variant.