Lucian Wintrich

While most people are busy self-isolating, “Twinks for Trump” founder Lucian Wintrich held a “coronavirus potluck” party in an effort to spread the virus.

Wintrich, who was behind the infamous 2016 “Twinks for Trump” photo exhibition featuring naked men posing in support of the president, said people who contract coronavirus at his party will build up immunity.

His claims are in direct contravention of World Health Organisation (WHO) advice. The health body has previously warned that there is no evidence to back up claims that societies can build up “herd immunity” to COVID-19.

“The majority of folks I invited, if they got it, would recover fairly quickly and build up an immunity to the present form of COVID-19,” Wintrich told the New York Post.

At least 20 people attended Twinks for Trump founder Lucian Wintrich’s coronavirus party.

“It was relatively inspired by the chickenpox parties that were all the rage in the 90s.”

Wintrich went on to claim that the “quarantine, itself, is serious to a degree” and said he “wouldn’t hang around folks over the age of 50” who could be more vulnerable to COVID-19.

He insisted that the was not trying to infect anybody at his party with the coronavirus – but that is not what the event invitation says.

The majority of folks I invited, if they got it, would recover fairly quickly and build up an immunity to the present form of COVID-19.

“They can’t diagnose us all,” the invitation for the gathering, which took place in his New York apartment on March 14, said.

The invitation urged people to avoid washing their hands and said: “Bring your fav dish!” Also on the invitation was a picture of a boy with chicken pox.

Perhaps as worrying, if not more so, is the fact that at least 20 people attended the party – and apparently had very few reservations about flouting social distancing guidelines.

His friends had very few reservations about attending the party.

One attendee, Brian Alacorn, told the New York Post that he attended because Wintrich texted him an invite.

“I thought I shouldn’t, because of the social distancing — but my friends were already outside and I just kinda went,” he said.

One anonymous attendee said: “When Britain was being bombed by Nazi Germany during the blitz, they kept the f*****g stores open. People went about their lives.”

They added: “We get a flu… and we shut everything down. … We have completely handed over our civil liberties … and anyone who wants to go out and live a normal life is semi-ostracized.”

Unsurprisingly, this is not Wintrich’s first foray into creating controversy. In 2018, he was dropped as a White House press correspondent over his links to white nationalists.