American doctors warned Wednesday against the risks of serious injuries presented by a new challenge that has gone viral on social networks, the “Milk Crate Challenge”. It consists of climbing a pyramid of plastic boxes in unstable equilibrium. For the past few days, TikTok and other platforms have been inundated with images of users attempting the perilous climb on these crates for milk bottles, which generally ends with a spectacular and obviously very painful fall …
Some then post images of impressive bruises, like @ SmittySpreadLuv on Twitter. If “you fall on the crates, you can break your back and remain paralyzed,” warns Dr. Chad Cannon, emergency physician for the University of Kansas health care system, saying “this is really a stupid thing” . “You might hit your head and have a hemorrhage,” he insists.
Man fxck the #CrateChallenge 🤦🏽♂️🤕😅 pic.twitter.com/fDfqFWONuD
– Fox Smith Sr. (@SmittySpreadLuv) August 23, 2021
Hospitals already saturated because of Covid-19
The health authorities of the city of Baltimore have meanwhile stressed that the time was not right to engage in this kind of acrobatics when hospitals are already under pressure from the pandemic. “With Covid-19 hospitalizations on the rise across the country, please check with your local hospital to make sure they have a bed available for you before jumping into the #milkcratechallenge,” they wrote on Twitter.
While the challenge videos were showing up well on Twitter and Instagram on Wednesday, searches on TikTok were unsuccessful. “This sentence may be associated with behavior or content that violates our rules,” TikTok displayed for all results. The videos and images of injuries are reminiscent of other challenges of sinister memory, such as the “Tide Pod Challenge” in 2018 in which young people bit into liquid detergent capsules, at the risk of intoxication.
Some pointed to the fact that, given their very expensive health care system, Americans attempting the “Milk Crate Challenge” would not necessarily benefit from free health care for injuries. Others, like George Takei, the legendary Mister Sulu of the Star Trek series, compared the obvious dangers of this challenge with the very hypothetical risks of side effects linked to the Covid-19 vaccine. “You’re going to take the milk crate challenge, but you don’t want to get vaccinated. I understand, ”joked George Takei.