We all (seniors) are Measles survivors. If I remember (so long ago), it was not particularly bad and people in general were happy to get them so they have been over it.
Now, few cases here and there are tragedy!
Whooping cough, mumps and rubella were also rather annoying passages to adulthood.
What were people really concerned were tuberculosis, polio, tetanus and diphtheria, but vaccines for those were already showing up.
Looking back, it made sense. The vaccines were first developed for the most deadly diseases (smallpox, rabies) My grandma remembered vividly the last smallpox pandemia and the Spanish flu pandemic. That WAS scary!
Then for above mentioned diphtheria, tetanus etc. Those were the scourges of my parents generation.
Then finally for the more-less harmless measles which ravaged our generation. Now, even the chicken pox, I guess, has a vaccine.
Measles are still actually the most contagious disease known to humanity. If you are not vaccinated or already a survivor, you will get them, if they show up in the neighborhood! That’s why they used to be a compulsory passage to adulthood.