COVID-19 parties (better known as coronavirus party or lockdown party) are gatherings with an intention of catching and spreading COVID-19 onto others.^[1] The existence of such parties is under controversy.

Andy Beshear, governor of Kentucky, reported that young people were taking part under parties and testing positive for COVID-19. "The partygoers intentionally got together 'thinking they were invincible' and purposely defying state guidance to practice social distancing," he said. A CNN headline on 25 March 2020 stated: "A group of young adults held a coronavirus party in Kentucky to defy orders to socially distance. Now one of them has coronavirus.^[2] On the exact same day, National Public Radio published the headline "Kentucky has 39 new cases, 1 person attended the coronavirus party."^[3] Both headlines, however, misrepresented the contents from the article and the quotes by Beshear. The Kentucky governor didn't say anything on intentional parties. He did say, though, that young people were attending parties and becoming sick under COVID-19.^[4]

Some news groups called COVID-19 parties a myth. The Rolling Stone called "shaming people on the internet for not properly socially distancing" the new favorite American pastime. They said the reality was young people simply attended parties at which they caught COVID-19. They didn't deliberately attend them to catch COVID-19.^[5]

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