In my day we WANTED to get measles. Well, our parents wanted us to. At least that was drilled into me. There was a big “fear” thing about entering adulthood having not been immunized by getting it as a child. But I’m 65.
I was born at a tine when Sabres and MiGs were shooting at each other over Pyongyang. Despite being aware that contracting measles would bring lifelong immunity, no one actually wanted to get the disease because of the severe and dangerous symptoms.
Measles swept through my family in the summer of 1960 with devastating effect. Although I got an injection of a serum that was apparently an early version of a measles vaccine, it was ineffective, and the virus eventually sidelined me for two weeks.