— Paul Offit, MD, on the history of the MMR vaccine and the lasting legacy of COVID
by
Emily Hutto, Associate Video Producer
January 26, 2024
In this video interview, Paul Offit, MD, of Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and a member of FDA’s Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee, discusses the history of measles and the MMR (measles, mumps, and rubella) vaccine and examines why there are currently several outbreaks of this vaccine-preventable disease in the U.S.
The following is a transcript of his remarks:
Recently, there have been outbreaks of measles in Philadelphia, in Delaware, in New Jersey. In 2022, there was an outbreak in Columbus, Ohio, that resulted in the hospitalization of 85 children, virtually all of whom were unvaccinated.
So, why is this happening? I think to understand that, we need to go back to the beginning.
The first measles vaccine was introduced in 1963. The last, best measles vaccine was introduced in 1968. Now before vaccines were available, every year in the United States there would be 3 to 4 million cases of measles, there would be 48,000 hospitalizations, and 500 deaths. But by 1968, we had an excellent vaccine, a vaccine where one dose would provide 93% immunity protection against measles.
By 1971, we had combined that measles vaccine with two other vaccines: the mumps and rubella vaccines to create the measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccine. Also, by 1971, the number of states that had school mandates increased from 25 to 40.
The problem was they weren’t enforced particularly well. What happened in 1976 is there was an outbreak in Alaska, and that was one of the first examples where the state mandates were enforced, the school vaccine mandates were enforced. So there were 75 children in Alaska who hadn’t been vaccinated, and they couldn’t get back to school until they were vaccinated. They got vaccinated, and the epidemic subsided. In 1977, there was a massive measles outbreak in Los Angeles County. Again, they enforced a school vaccine mandate, and so 50,000 children could not get back to school until they were vaccinated. And they were vaccinated and came back t