Amid a measles outbreak, people should be smart enough not to need health officials to tell them not to throw a “measles party,” but alas, that’s what America is all about nowadays—putting your child in danger to avoid the nearly nonexistent danger of a vaccine.

That’s what Ron Cook, the chief health officer at the Texas Tech University Health Center Sciences in Lubbock, Texas, had to do in a press briefing this past Friday. 146 reported cases of measles have ripped through West Texas, leading to 20 hospitalizations and the death of one unvaccinated child.

The outbreak is concentrated in Gaines County but has spread to multiple counties that all have one thing in common. Say it with me: low vaccination rates. 116 of the 146 cases involve people under the age of 18, with 46 of them being five years old or younger. Only five— five!!—of those 146 had received at least one dose of the MMR vaccine, which covers measles, mumps, and rubella.

What Are Measles Parties?

Disease parties are gatherings where parents bring their children to the home of another child who has a childhood disease so their kids can catch it and gain immunity. The problem is that the kid then has to survive that illness to reap the benefits of immunity. Cook says that so far he is not aware of any measles parties that have officially taken place, but there are reports of West Texas parents discussing the possibility of measles parties on social media.

Cook is trying to get ahead of it, getting the word out that purposely giving your child a disease over a vaccine that protects them from that disease is perhaps a rather stupid idea. If you’re wondering why, Cook says “We can’t predict who’s going to do poorly with measles, be hospitalized, potentially get pneumonia or encephalitis, and or pass away from this.”

Measles can quickly lead to complications that could put a kid’s life in danger. The much safer option is, as Cook explains, just getting vaccinated. “So that’s a foolish idea to go have a measles party,” Cook said. “The best thing to do is make sure that you’re well-vaccinated.”

The one positive to come from all of this is that the outbreak and the public messaging on it may have actually convinced some parents to vaccinate their kids. Late last week, Lubbock’s director of public health, Katherine Wells, announced that 50 children in Lubbock visited the city’s clinics to get their MMR vaccine.

That’s a sign that some parents who were hesitant to vaccinate their kids are no longer hesitant.