It is true that more kids drown each year than die with measles.
But that doesn’t mean that you can forget about vaccinating and protecting your kids against measles and other vaccine preventable diseases.
More Kids Drown Than Die With Measles...
Of course, it means that you work to protect them from both of these hazards and all of the other risks your kids face!
Risks that include vaccine preventable diseases, especially when we are losing herd immunity levels of protection in many communities, and we are reaching record-breaking levels of measles.
Still, the idea that anyone is ignoring drowning is ridiculous.
Drowning and other safety hazards are always in the news.
Pediatric providers routinely educate parents about how to keep their kids safe from drowning and other safety hazards.
Again, it is ridiculous to suggest that we shouldn’t talk about measles because 900–1000 kids die from drowning each year in the United States.
It is an example of the relative privation fallacy and is a common tactic of anti-vaccine influencers, who often try and confuse people by bring up other things when talking about measles.
Why?
To make you think that you can ignore measles because there are other things that you should be worried about…
It is also misleading to compare drowning and measles, as they are very different types of risks.
Lastly, we do a great deal to protect kids from drowning, from teaching them to swim at a young age, to encouraging the use of life jackets and supervision around water, and enforcing laws about fences around pools, etc.
All things that have helped to greatly decrease the number of drownings in the United States.
Would you ask anyone to stop talking about any of these safety measures, which would likely work to increase drownings again?
Of course not!
But that is essentially when anti-vaccine influencers are doing when they say we shouldn’t talk about measles.
They are working to bring back measles epidemics and the pre-vaccine era, when hundreds of kids used to die with measles each year.
Also: Why bother with airbags, …just stick to seatbelts.