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This was not yet understood in the decades before the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine’s approval in 1963, when measles was a common childhood disease that killed some 400 children in the U.S. each year.

The proportion of kindergartners nationwide who completed their measles, mumps, and rubella vaccine series dropped from about 95% — the federal coverage target — before the pandemic to less than 93% last school year.

And only 93.1% of kindergarten students had received both doses of their measles, mumps and rubella shots, substantially lower than the 96.2% statewide average.

Her 9-month-old was too young for the first dose of the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine, typically given to American toddlers shortly after their first birthday.

The jab was improved and combined with vaccines for the mumps and rubella viruses about a decade later, and is widely considered to be safe.