THE DREADED “COVID party” has come to Alabama. Even as the number of hospitalized coronavirus patients in the state reached
record highs, news came out this week that college students in Tuscaloosa have been throwing parties with infected guests, then betting on the contagion that ensues. “They put money in a pot and they try to get Covid,” said City Council member Sonya McKinstry. “Whoever gets Covid first gets the pot. It makes no sense.”
That much, at least, is true: This story makes no sense. Despite its implausibility and utter lack of valid sourcing, the fantasy of Alabama virus gamblers has nonetheless exploded across the internet, with slack-jawed coverage turning up in
CNN, the
New York Post, and the Associated Press, among many others. A representative headline
declares, “Tuscaloosa students held parties, bet on who got coronavirus first.”