Barbara Walters, a.k.a. Benjamin Button, has chicken pox

Barbara Walters has chicken pox.

Not shingles, which comes from the same virus and is something one might more likely expect in a woman who’s 83 years old. No, Babs has good old-fashioned chicken pox.

“She’d never had it as a child,” Whoopi Goldberg said Monday on “The View. “So now she’s been told to rest, she’s not allowed any visitors and, we’re telling you, Barbara — no scratching.”

Goldberg had previously talked on the show about Walters being in the hospital and running a low-grade fever after the correspondent fell and cut her head at a Jan. 19 inaugural event. Turns out the illness had nothing to do with pregnancy (Elizabeth Hasselbeck’s lighthearted notion) or Grey Goose vodka (Joy Behar’s bright idea).

Joked Behar: “Barbara gets younger and younger every year. She’s like Benjamin Button. Now she’s going to a pediatrician at this age.”

No word yet on when Walters will be back, but in this era of HDTV, we’re happy to give Barbara all the time she needs to mend. (WebMD says, “You or your child can go back to work, school, or day care when all blisters have crusted over. This is usually about 10 days after the first symptoms start.” Eew.)

“This is what you get,” Behar said, “for interviewing Honey Boo Boo.”

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