Roald Dahl's Heartbreaking Take on Vaccines

[mahatmakanejeeves]

61. I'm adding a link to an article about this in the Washington Post.

The saddest story Roald Dahl ever wrote — about his daughter’s death from measles — is worth reading today

By Fred Barbash February 2
@fbarbash

Some people seem to think the measles is a nuisance disease — irritating and briefly unpleasant, but otherwise harmless. For many, it’s not so bad. For others, the measles is serious and potentially fatal. Children under 5 are particularly vulnerable to complications, says the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. One of the worst complications is measles encephalitis.

“Acute encephalitis occurs in approximately 0.1% of reported cases,” says the CDC. “Onset generally occurs 6 days after rash onset (range 1–15 days) and is characterized by fever, headache, vomiting, stiff neck, meningeal irritation, drowsiness, convulsions, and coma. Cerebrospinal fluid shows pleocytosis and elevated protein. The case-fatality rate is approximately 15%.”

Roald Dahl, the renowned author of “Boy,” “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory,” “Matilda” and scores of other books and screenplays, lost his daughter Olivia to measles encephalitis in 1962. In 1988, about seven years before his death, he wrote a poignant plea for the Sandwell Health Authority in Britain urging everyone to get their kids vaccinated. Dahl’s recounting of his experience has been rediscovered and recirculated in recent days because of the measles outbreak in California, spread largely by unvaccinated individuals who came in contact with an infected visitor to Disneyland.

Here, in part, is what he wrote:
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