Family drama over first birthday party

My husband wants to invite his sister and her 6 kids to our daughters first birthday. We were going to keep it small and just immediate family only but his sister has been MIA for months. Never checks in, never calls, doesn’t call on holidays. They know we’ve been keeping our distance with Covid and rsv cases. He said if he doesn’t invite them it would cause a huge divide and family drama. So to avoid it we need to invite them and risk our daughter getting sick? Their kids are very active with daycare, camp, sports ect ect looking on advice on what to do. Her kids range from ages 1-11. He said he’s in a tough position which I totally understand but this entire time we’ve been safe and now we have to make exceptions to please his family? It’s not like it’s his sister that he’s close with, like I said she’s been MIA and acts like she doesn’t have a niece. It wouldn’t be fair for me not to have something small for my daughters first birthday since I can’t have a big party. I don’t want to not have one completely just to please his family 😑 I also have a small house so I can’t accommodate a lot of people and practice social distancing. what would you do in my situation?