(CNN)– Kentucky Gov. Matt Bevin recently said he chose to expose all nine of his children to the chickenpox instead of giving them the vaccine.
“They had it as children. They were miserable for a few days, and they all turned out fine,” Bevin said in an interview with WKCT, a Bowling Green, Kentucky, radio station.
So-called chickenpox parties, in which parents expose their kids to the disease based on the belief that it will be more serious if contracted as an adult, are not a new concept.
Before vaccines became available, the parties used to be very popular for diseases such as chickenpox or measles.
Although these parties are far less common now, parents will still occasionally advertise having a child with chickenpox at home, inviting other parents with small children to come “get it over it and develop lifelong immunity.”