While
most parents go to great lengths to keep their children healthy, a
small percentage are taking steps to get their kids sick. There is a
Facebook group called “Find a Pox Party in Your Area” where parents can
ask if anyone with a child who has the chicken pox would be willing to
send saliva-infected lollipops or clothing through the mail. These
parents opt to forgo the chicken pox vaccine and are looking to infect
their children with the virus so they obtain natural immunity. But
authorities and doctors are warning parents who want to avoid chicken
pox vaccines for their children that the new mail-order scheme is not
only unsafe but illegal. Isaac Thomsen, a specialist in pediatric
infectious diseases at Vanderbilt Children’s Hospital, said shipping the
infected items is “theoretically possible” but “probably not an
effective way to transmit it. It typically has to be inhaled.” But
Thomsen also warned that the lollipops could carry other more dangerous
viruses, like hepatitis. It is also federal crime to send diseases,
viruses or a contagion through the post office or any mail transport
service and carries a sentence between less than a year to 20 years if
convicted.
