Abstract
On May 17, 1970, the Allegheny County Health Department and the County Medical Society organized a mass campaign to inoculate all eligible children from the ages of 1 to 12 in Allegheny County against the rubella virus. The campaign was the single largest rubella inoculation attempted to date and was used to inform other communities’ vaccination campaigns in the ensuing years. Just the year before, a successful rubella vaccine became available and health officials hoped to stave off another epidemic like the one that had impacted around 50,000 babies in 1964–1965. The disease, while not dangerous to children, was most easily spread by them to pregnant women and could cause fetal birth defects and death.
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