"Chicken Pox Parties"- have all the kid's friends over to get it over with and avoid vaccinations

[underpants]

Report: Chicken Pox Parties Continue 45-Year Rampage

by Matt Haber on January 12, 2009
http://www.observer.com/mobile/article/81088

In a feature by Kate Torgovnick headlined "Inside New York Chicken Pox Parties," we learn that, according to the article's subhead, "A growing number of New York parents are scheduling chicken pox playdates where kids share lollipops and trade germy pajamas to spread the disease and avoid vaccinations. But is it an ill-advised idea?"

Good question. Also, is it really growing?

You're Invited To Get Chicken Pox, The Today Show, March 21, 2007.
CHICKEN POX PARTIES. Kids spread the illness to avoid vaccine, by Tracy Conner, The New York Daily News, August 20, 2006.
Docs Pan 'Pox Parties', John Easterbrook, CBS News, September 30, 2005.
A Pox On Your House? Please Call! Chicken pox parties may be back in vogue, by Valerie Soe, The SF Gate, January 29, 2004.
The return of 'pox parties', by Hilary Shenfeld, The Daily Herald, January 14, 2002.
You're invited to: chickenpox party! (no gifts, please), by Dan Nephin, Associated Press, October 19, 2001.
The Chicken Pox Party (book), by Sharon Dennis Wyeth and Heidi Petach, Bantam Books, 1990.
The Chicken-pox Party (book), by Delia Huddy, Nicole Goodwin, Hamilton, 1973.
Boy with Chicken Pox Still Has Birthday Party, The Hartford Courant, June 1, 1964.

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From two of the links listed above

CHICKEN POX PARTIES. Kids spread the illness to avoid vaccine
http://www.nydailynews.com/archives/news/2006/08/20/2006-08-20_chicken_pox_parties__kids_sp.html
Chicken pox is a rarity in New York these days - with just over 1,000 cases in school-age children in 2005 - thanks to a vaccine that is required for admission to day care or school.

But chicken pox parties like the one Takemoto hosted are increasingly popular among parents who believe the vaccine is ineffective, short-lived or unsafe, while the actual disease is relatively harmless.

Docs Pan 'Pox Parties'
Warn Of Risks Of Intentionally Trying To Get Kids To Catch Chicken Pox
Sept. 30, 2005
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2005/09/30/health/webmd/main893102.shtml
"In a time when we have the chicken pox vaccine available — one of the safest vaccines we have ever had, and one that works very well — there is no point in exposing your child to the natural infection," Gershon tells WebMD.

Surprisingly, pox parties are popping up in neighborhoods in several U.S. cities. On Internet bulletin boards and blogs, rumors spread that the chicken pox vaccine is somehow unsafe or ineffective. Parents worried by these rumors join email rings. When one of these parents' children gets chicken pox, the parents invite others in the community to a pox party.
A Dangerous Recipe

A "natural mothering" web site gives a recipe for spreading varicella zoster virus — the chicken pox germ. It advises parents to pass a whistle from the infected child to other children.