If you’re of a certain age — about 70 and beyond — it’s entirely fine to be nostalgic about some things from your childhood, like hula hoops, Davy Cockett coonskin caps, Elvis or “Gunsmoke.”

One thing you shouldn’t be nostalgic about, though, is the measles.

Before a vaccine became available in 1963, measles was commonplace in the United States. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimates there were 500,000 cases every year, mostly striking children, though the number could have actually been higher. Of those 500,000 cases, about 500 were fatal.

Since the introduction of the vaccine 60 years ago, and concerted efforts on the part of health officials to get children vaccinated, the number of measles cases has dropped precipitously in this country and throughout the developed world. If the vaccine had never been concocted, and the number of annual measles deaths in the United States had proceeded at the same pace, that means 30,000 of us would have died as a result of the measles over the last six decades.

Measles has retreated, but it’s not entirely gone. In fact, health officials worry about measles making something of a comeback due to some children falling behind on their vaccines due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and some parents falling for vaccine misinformation and not getting their children vaccinated at all.

About a month ago, the Ohio Department of Health put out an alert about potential measles exposure for anyone who was in a terminal at Cincinnati’s airport on two dates in January. Further afield, there has been an uptick in cases in Europe and Britain. On this continent, experts believe vaccine resisters are too geographically dispersed to spark an outbreak – yet – but a pocket of unvaccinated children could do the trick.

What a shame that would be. Measles is no fun to endure, and it’s easily preventable with a vaccine that has been shown to be safe and effective time and time again. But, unfortunately, the deluded anti-vaccine contingent continues to spread bunkum about vaccines, with presidential candidate Robert Kennedy Jr. leading the charge. Proving himself yet again to be one of the worst, most toxic figures in public life, Kennedy has suggested that measles deaths in American Samoa five years ago were actually the result of the vaccine and not the disease, and has yukked it up about how he got to stay home and watch television when he had the measles when he was a kid.

To Dr. Paul Offit, who directs the Vaccine Education Center at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, it’s no laughing matter. He told NBC News, “Most everybody who was born before a vaccine was available had measles. I had measles, as did all my friends. I lived, but not everybody did. It is galling that people think if they don’t see somebody die right next to them, then it never happened.”

He added, “Suffering, hospitalizations, ICU admissions and the occasional death. Kids with measles are sick. It’s a miserable illness.”

No parent should want to risk their children’s life or health, particularly when immunization can be easily scheduled with a phone call or a couple of mouse clicks.