Docs issue warning as people fall for latest viral challenge
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LOS ANGELES • Health experts have warned people not to attempt the latest viral challenge - walking over a pyramid of precariously balanced milk crates.
TikTok and other social media sites have been flooded in recent days by videos of people in the United States and beyond trying - and mostly failing - to climb the crates. Most videos end with what looks like a painful fall onto the collapsing crates, or the ground, as onlookers film on their phones in what some dubbed an event in the "Hood Olympics".
"You're at risk of... hitting your head and getting a head bleed," said Dr Chad Cannon, an emergency room doctor at the University of Kansas Health System, on Tuesday. "(If) you land on the milk crate, you will break your back and be paralysed."
Baltimore City Health pointed out that hospitals are already under strain. "With Covid-19 hospitalisations rising... please check with your local hospital to see if they have a bed available for you, before attempting the #milkcratechallenge," it tweeted.
While the hashtag was readily searchable on Twitter and Instagram on Wednesday, searches on TikTok returned no results. "This phrase may be associated with behaviour or content that violates our guidelines. Promoting a safe and positive experience is TikTok's top priority," the search result page said.
The videos - and photos of some appalling injuries - were reminiscent of an earlier Internet sensation, the 2018 Tide Pod Challenge, which saw young people biting into liquid laundry detergent packets.
Some social media users contrasted the willingness of people to attempt something so patently dangerous with the attitude to getting a safe Covid-19 vaccine jab.
"You'll do the milk crate challenge but won't get the vaccine. Got it," quipped Star Trek actor George Takei.
AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
