U.S. scientists raced to develop a rubella vaccine ahead of an epidemic expected in 1970. By Meredith WadmanIn 1964, an unprecedented epidemic of rubella (German measles) swept the United States.
The virus responsible is about twice as contagious as the novel coronavirus spreading around the world today seems to be; rubella infected some 12.5 million people, an estimated one in 15 people in the United States.
Like the novel coronavirus responsible for the current pandemic, the virus that causes rubella usually produced mild disease—in the case of rubella, typically fever and a rash.
In about one-third of people, it caused no symptoms at all. Although the coronavirus does kill some people, especially the elderly, rubella caused by far the