[vikramkr]

As you said, Pox parties and all weren't exactly a brilliant solution - now your kid would be carrying the chickenpox virus amd have a risk of shingles later, and using things like saliva from lollipops means that your kids are also now at risk if getting all sorts of fun diseases like hepatitis. There's a reason we use vaccines. We dont know the long term risks of covid (case in point, recently it's become clear that it can trigger blood clots and strokes in otherwise low risk individuals, and the inflammatory syndrome in children is highly concerning). That's why we dont do challenge doses.

There are companies deliberately breeding strains that are less dangerous (attenuated strains) for use as a vaccine, so people are working on that actively. It's not one of the approaches further along in trials though.