Twitter Deletes Post From The Federalist Proposing ‘Chickenpox Parties’ to Deliberately Spread Coronavirus

By Zachary PetrizzoMar 25th, 2020, 3:04 pm
 

Twitter temporarily locked the account of The Federalist Wednesday after the conservative opinion site published a piece, written by a dermatologist based in Oregon, that proposed the deliberate spread of the coronavirus in order to boost immunity to the disease.

The op-ed, penned by Dr. Douglas Perednia, proposed an “outside the box” solution to the current pandemic that flies in the face of advice from experts, including Dr. Anthony Fauci, who are urging social distancing.

Perednia wrote that a “controlled infection” — modeled after the “chickenpox parties” of the last century — is the measure that should be considered.

A Controlled Voluntary Infection (CVI) “involves allowing people at low risk for severe complications to deliberately contract COVID-19 in a socially and medically responsible way so they become immune to the disease,” the doctor wrote.

“It is time to think outside the box and seriously consider a somewhat unconventional approach to COVID-19: controlled voluntary infection,” The Federalist wrote in a now-removed tweet linking to the op-ed.

Twitter initially added a warning to the link stating that the post might be “unsafe.”

Then, according to a Twitter spokesperson, “the account was temporarily locked for violating the Twitter Rules regarding COVID-19.”

The tweet was deleted, and the Federalist Twitter page appears to be back up and running. Twitter has taken aggressive measures to crack down on misinformation surrounding the coronavirus.

Federalist co-founders Sean Davis and Ben Domenech did not respond to Mediaite’s request for comment.

Twitter users ripped the site for publishing the story:

As to who funds the Federalist, that is still unknown at this time.

[READ: Doctor Who Wrote Op-Ed on Coronavirus Infection Parties Says Federalist Made Unwanted Edits to Piece] 

Have a tip we should know? tips@mediaite.com

Filed Under: