Roald Dahl's Heartbreaking Take on Vaccines

[FourScore]

Fri Jan 30, 2015 at 11:57 AM PST
Roald Dahl's Heartbreaking Take on Vaccines
by tmservo433

With so much debate around the seeming return of Measles - in part spurred by those who were not vaccinated, and putting more at risk, many friends have reminded me of this statement about the impact of Measles on child author Roald Dahl.

http://www.roalddahlfans.com/articles/meas.php

Olivia, my eldest daughter, caught measles when she was seven years old. As the illness took its usual course I can remember reading to her often in bed and not feeling particularly alarmed about it. Then one morning, when she was well on the road to recovery, I was sitting on her bed showing her how to fashion little animals out of coloured pipe-cleaners, and when it came to her turn to make one herself, I noticed that her fingers and her mind were not working together and she couldn't do anything.

"Are you feeling all right?" I asked her.

"I feel all sleepy," she said.

In an hour, she was unconscious. In twelve hours she was dead.

The measles had turned into a terrible thing called measles encephalitis and there was nothing the doctors could do to save her. That was twenty-four years ago in 1962, but even now, if a child with measles happens to develop the same deadly reaction from measles as Olivia did, there would still be nothing the doctors could do to help her.

On the other hand, there is today something that parents can do to make sure that this sort of tragedy does not happen to a child of theirs. They can insist that their child is immunised against measles. I was unable to do that for Olivia in 1962 because in those days a reliable measles vaccine had not been discovered. Today a good and safe vaccine is available to every family and all you have to do is to ask your doctor to administer it.

It is not yet generally accepted that measles can be a dangerous illness. Believe me, it is. In my opinion parents who now refuse to have their children immunised are putting the lives of those children at risk. In America, where measles immunisation is compulsory, measles like smallpox, has been virtually wiped out.

Here in Britain, because so many parents refuse, either out of obstinacy or ignorance or fear, to allow their children to be immunised, we still have a hundred thousand cases of measles every year. Out of those, more than 10,000 will suffer side effects of one kind or another. At least 10,000 will develop ear or chest infections. About 20 will die.

LET THAT SINK IN.

Every year around 20 children will die in Britain from measles.

So what about the risks that your children will run from being immunised?

They are almost non-existent. Listen to this. In a district of around 300,000 people, there will be only one child every 250 years who will develop serious side effects from measles immunisation! That is about a million to one chance. I should think there would be more chance of your child choking to death on a chocolate bar than of becoming seriously ill from a measles immunisation.

So what on earth are you worrying about? It really is almost a crime to allow your child to go unimmunised.

The ideal time to have it done is at 13 months, but it is never too late. All school-children who have not yet had a measles immunisation should beg their parents to arrange for them to have one as soon as possible.

Incidentally, I dedicated two of my books to Olivia, the first was 'James and the Giant Peach'. That was when she was still alive. The second was 'The BFG', dedicated to her memory after she had died from measles. You will see her name at the beginning of each of these books. And I know how happy she would be if only she could know that her death had helped to save a good deal of illness and death among other children.

As the parent of an autistic child, I wanted to add a little something to this - more below the fold.

Over the last few years, a pervasive hysteria has grown, linking the use of vaccines to maladies without any scientific basis or real study. This linkage has led seemingly rational people to make irrational decisions. More importantly, for those of us in the autism community, anti-vaxxer advocates have done considerable harm to real research that may help those with autism.

http://healthland.time.com/2014/03/04/nothing-not-even-hard-facts-can-make-anti-vaxxers-change-their-minds/

“Disease Risks” and “Autism Correction” had slightly better results, but neither seemed to convince parents. And while “Autism Correction” proved to some parents that there’s no link between vaccines and autism, it produced a strong backlash in others that just reinforced their sense that vaccinations are a conspiracy theory. Only 45% of the already anti-vaccine parents said they would vaccinate after they saw the “Autism Correction” message, compared to 70% of the control group.

Autism is a baffling and difficult to grasp problem that causes many a parent a sleepless night. The need to find a reason - any reason - for autism is gutwrenching, a question parents ask each other: 'why did this happen'. The fixation on conspiracy theory laden anti-vaccination themes, though, is one of the most harmful for real research.

By portraying autism as a matter of a modern fluke, due to vaccines that have been around for decades without similar results we aren't just anti-vaccine, we start to be anti-finding real answers.

Because the range of autistm is very wide - thus why we call it a spectrum - the inbuilt need to equate all of it as having a single root forces far too many autistic parents to step back and say 'no, it wasn't a vaccine', and it puts too many children in the role of being seen as 'permanently damaged' by those who want the vaccine theory to be true.

Think about this: the anti-vaccine movement is telling you they would rather risk the death of their child rather than an unbelievable longshot - even in their own, non-scientifically supported view - of autism. Even those who believe that vaccines=autism acknowledge that in their fever dream of non-science that the impact is a small percentage. But that small percentage is so scary to them that their child's death is OK to avoid it. Talk about a stigma to put on those with autism.

There is a saying amongst Scientologists - yes, those kooky L Ron Hubbard followers - "If it isn't the truth for you, it isn't true for you." This circular argument basically means: if you don't believe it, no matter how many people tell you it is the truth, you have no reason to accept it.

But any parent who has read James and the Giant Peach, or any of Dahl's other works can appreciate a man who lost his child due to an illness we can now prevent.

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2015/01/30/1361224/-Roald-Dahl-s-Heartbreaking-Take-on-Vaccines

[MADem]

1. That guy was surrounded by death and illness--he lived a tempestuous life.

He was a medical savant, though--if not for him, his wife would have been bed-bound for the remainder of her life:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-1301717/Roald-Dahl-broke-Patricia-Neals-heart.html

One of their five children was brain-damaged in a horrifying road accident. A second died at the age of seven. Another daughter is the writer Tessa Dahl, mother of supermodel Sophie.
At the peak of Neal's acting career in 1965, only two years after winning an Oscar for Hud, she suffered a series of massive strokes that left her paralysed, unable to walk, partially blind and with severely impaired speech.
Her career appeared to be over, but her husband imposed a brutal recovery regime on her that has since been adopted as the standard therapy for stroke victims.

I agree with him on the measles vaccination--it just makes sense to get it.

[closeupready]

8. As a young man, he had servants in Africa, and watched one die of the bite from a black mamba.

That experience inspired one of his 'gotcha' stories, later televised on his show, Tales of the Unexpected - an episode entitled, "Poison" -it's on Youtube, for those interested.

Anyway, the difference between him and the children on DU who go "neener!neener! Thanks, Jenny McCarthy!1!" is like the difference between Impressionism and crayons.

[NuclearDem]

2. My only regret is that I have but one rec to give this OP.

[Orrex]

6. Well, I gave it another. And a kick.

[zappaman]

3. Big kick and rec! n/t

[Indydem]

4. This argument is simple.

I do not know what causes Autism. I sure as shit know what causes Measles, Mumps, Rubella, Chicken Pox, Pertussis, and Diphtheria.

If you aren't protecting your children from diseases that may well kill them or ruin their lives on an unfounded fear they MAY develop Autism, you are a monster.

[abelenkpe]

5. My grandmother went deaf from complications associated with measles

It saddens me when people say "It's not so bad, I survived." as an excuse to not vaccinate today. How can we forget those who did not survive and whose lives were forever altered?

[Hekate]

30. It's easy to "forget" what you weren't taught. Public health issues desperately need to be curricula

...in elementary schools, middle schools, and high schools. Public Health information at age-appropriate levels should be taught in co-ordination with science classes, history classes, and civics classes. Literature (English classes anyone?) is replete with first-person accounts of great epidemics of the past, and fictionalized accounts by authors like Charles Dickens and Mark Twain that are based on their personal experiences and are enough to break a heart of stone.

Furthermore, doctors of all specialties (most especially OB/GYNs and pediatricians) should be instructed to ask their patients if they and their children have been vaccinated, and to instruct them in its importance.

It wasn't just being born at the right time that makes me know and remember such things. I've always been an independent reader, and for whatever reason this is a subject that impressed me early on. I read the Little House books in elementary school; the whole family came down with malaria, but didn't know its source. I was only a few years older when I read Mrs. Mike, with the unforgettable and matter-of-fact statement from a slightly older woman to the young bride as they passed by the town graveyard: "That was my first family," in reference to the recurring waves of epidemics that swept off so many children.

But anyway -- not everyone is you or me, which is why I think the subject needs to be taught, and not left to the chance memories of older folks nobody is listening to any more....

[Blanks]

49. It should be taught in school. Unfortunately,

There are those who believe that pediatricians are in on the conspiracy to promote vaccines.

They would throw a fit at the school board meeting. That's not reason enough not to try (create an educational program) but the antivax crowd can be vicious, cruel even, toward those who are 'stupid enough to believe'.

I've been in a few Facebook discussions and folks who otherwise seem perfectly reasonable are way out there when it comes to vaccinations.

[annabanana]

7. Education must begin anew..

with EVERY generation.

Not just vaccines, ..everything.

[Bluenorthwest]

9. What a great post. Dahl was my very favorite author as a child and he remains high on that long

list of adult greats.

[narnian60]

22. I could have written your post.

He was brilliant.

[FunkyLeprechaun]

10. This makes me sad

I'm just flabbergasted at the amount of people who think hand washing is enough. A FB friend unfriended me because I told her that wasn't enough at all.

[geomon666]

11. Anti-vaxxers really need to wake the fuck up.

[user_name]

12. The people whom I respect in the autism community

are not anti-vaccination, but they do advocate an alternative vaccination schedule to reduce the burden on compromised immune systems.

[alarimer]

35. There is no such burden

The vaccination schedule is not a burden on a health person. The autism community is full of shit on vaccines.

[uppityperson]

38. Of course those with "compromised immune systems" like kids with HIV would have an alternative vx

schedule. But for most kids, that is not an issue.

[mountain grammy]

13. K&R

[TeamPooka]

14. K&R!

[Stuckinthebush]

15. Surely we don't have anti vaxers here at DU

Please tell me we don't. I like to think we have an informed community.

[NuclearDem]

19. More than you'd think.

[Archae]

23. There's a poster of anti-vaccination hysteria videos.

The threads have been roundly criticized and the threads locked, twice now.
Maybe more.

One video was from none other than the quack Andrew Wakefield, the other was from "Natural News," one of the worst anti-science woo web sites on the Internet.
The head of that website is a total look.
http://americanloons.blogspot.com/2010/05/1-mike-adams.html

[Starry Messenger]

24. It's small but loud.

I'm sure they will avoid this thread.

[zappaman]

28. We have more than a few.

Sadly...

[Hekate]

32. A handful

And at least one of them is oh-so-righteous at having won the DNA lottery of good resistance, as well as the Lady Luck lottery of, well, luck. Both forms of good fortune can reverse at any time, but not to hear them tell it. I'm finally irritated enough to start comparing them to the 1% who inherited their daddy's pile of money but want to tell the rest of us how hard they worked to get where they are, and how lazy and stupid the rest of us are because we are not filthy rich too.

Meh.

[tblue37]

16. Like smallpox, measles helped Europeans to decimate and thus conquer the

indigenous population of the New World (though they didn't spread measles intentionally as they did smallpox).

The Aztecs had no immunity to the measles virus (or to mumps or smallpox) because they were entirely new diseases to this part of the world, and huge numbers of idigenous people in the New World died from this disease that most of the conquistadores shook off after a few days of discomfort.

As the most vulnerable victims of a disease die off over time, the disease becomes progressively less virulent, so although measles is no joke, *most* sufferers now just suffer, they don't die of it or end up with serious long-term damage. By the time of the European invasion of the New World, measles was not as devastating an illness for most Europeans, though it still was for some, just as it still is today for some of European ancestry.

Many people (mostly kids) DO still die of measles (the number I saw most recently was that 400 kids each day die of measles around the world!), and some still DO suffer severe, even incapacitating long-term damage from the disease.

[aint_no_life_nowhere]

17. Rouald Dahl hosted and wrote for one of the greatest horror series on American TV

Way Out was the summer replacement show for the Twilight Zone back in the early 60s. Rouald Dahl was fantastic as the host and so were the shows. Critically acclaimed, some of the episodes were based on his short stories of horror and the fantastic. I loved Way Out with Rouald Dahl even more than the Twilight Zone and in many ways it was even more daring, imaginative, and bizarre.

[zappaman]

29. I never heard of this!

Can't wait to check it out!
Thanks!

[nc4bo]

42. Squee!

How exciting is this find? Can not begin to tell you.

Thanks for bringing it to my and others attention!

[ErikJ]

18. C-section births and bottle feeding cause more autism

Study Finds Breastfeeding Is Key to Autism Prevention
http://blog.thebump.com/2013/11/08/study-finds-breastfeeding-is-key-to-autism-prevention/

Caesarean section births 'increase the risk of autism by 23%', study finds
http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-families/health-news/caesarean-section-births-increase-the-risk-of-autism-by-23-study-finds-9819941.html

And I would bet too sanitary environment during infancy has something to do with it also, like it does with allergies.

[Ilsa]

26. I have a hard time with the C-section one.

Perhaps the consequences of needing a C-section cause more autism. Things like pregnancy-induced hypertension and other symptoms associated with pre-eclampsia. Perhaps declining fetal heart rates that precipitate C-sections are the problem.

[Starry Messenger]

20. k&r

[blackspade]

21. I can't Rec enough.

[AtheistCrusader]

25. No, it's worse. They'd risk the death of YOUR child.

A vaccine isn't foolproof. You can voluntarily vaccinate your kid, and your kid can come in contact with the kid of some dumbass that didn't vaccinate, that kid's contagious, and if your child is sufficiently exposed, has a transient weak immune response, falls into the 4% or so that never develop an immune response, had a transplant, had chemo for childhood leukemia, etc, your kid can still catch it.

Worse, a teen can have the antibodies, and still experience what is called a cytokine storm, where their immune system hulks out, kills the invader AND healthy cells, killing the teen.

[hifiguy]

27. K and R!

[Iggo]

31. Anti-vaxers are fucking idiots.

[drynberg]

45. and you are a name caller, so?

[Iggo]

48. Yeah, but I'm not a fucking idiot.

[Kalidurga]

34. Getting children vaccinated can be traumatic.

It took a nurse an assisatant and myself once to give one of my children a vaccine. It was horrible she screamed and screamed. But, a funeral would have been much, much more traumatic. Or if she had gotten sick and became blind or deaf or one of the many other things that can happen if you get measles or chicken pox. I think the 5 minutes of trauma are a lot easier than a lifetime of regret.

[Hekate]

55. My little sister was phobic about needles, and it's an awful thing. Good Mom for braving the storm.

When I was raising my own, I used to dub certain events as Magical Moments of Motherhood.

[Hestia]

36. Not to appear cruel but 20 deaths from 100,000 cases per year? Car wrecks kill more kids...

[yardwork]

47. The twenty deaths are fairly significant to the people who die. /nt

[REP]

52. He wrote that in 1986

With measles making a comeback the rate may be higher. And isn't one preventable death one too many? Especially a death so easily prevented?

[Arugula Latte]

53. Those are the deaths, not the kids who grow up permanently damaged from measels.

Hearing loss/deafness, permanent brain damage, blindness, scarring, etc.

[valerief]

58. Guns deaths do, too.

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jun/25/us-accidental-gun-deaths-100-children-yearly

[SunSeeker]

37. K & R

[spanone]

39. k&r...

[Mopar151]

40. True beleiver cihropractors don't immunize their children

And proudly advertise the fact!

[FourScore]

41. I have a close firend who bought into the whole vaccine-autism hype and didn't

vaccinate her kids. She regrets it today, and says she'd do it differently if she had a do-over.

[ladyVet]

43. I'm old enough to remember the fears about polio.

I remember getting the sugar cube at our local elementary school, along with my brother, because people were absolutely crazy with worry over kids getting the disease. Later, I got a shot (with either a multiple-needle device, or multiple jabs) and the next morning I couldn't move. It took hours before I was able to move my limbs normally. My sorry-ass mother couldn't be bothered to call the doctor and find out what was going on, and I count myself lucky that I did regain full mobility.

My siblings and I all had mumps at the same time, and we couldn't see our father for weeks because he hadn't had the disease and the doctor told him to stay as far away as possible and not to touch anything that had been near us. It was terribly painful and I wouldn't wish that on anybody.

My three boys all had chicken pox because there was no vaccine at the time, but they got all the others. I can't forget the horror stories my parents and grandparents told about how devastating these diseases were.

I can see questioning the safety of whatever the "experts" want you to stand in line for. It's not unheard of for governments to use their people as guinea pigs. But that's completely different from going all freak out over something when there's evidence that supports something, and no credible evidence to support your beliefs.

In other news, you should all be steaming your vaginas. Seriously.

[rurallib]

46. Boy oh boy do I remember the fear of polio

couldn't drink from water fountains, couldn't go to a swimming pool, be very careful about what kind of weather you went out in.
I think I was @ 6 when I got the Salk vaccine (the shot). My mother looked like she had the weight of the world lifted from her shoulders. My parent were friends with a couple of polio victims.

Wonder what I would have been thinking of my parents when I became an adult and realized what not being vaccinated for childhood diseases meant to me - no doubt I would have been super pissed off. Thanks for exposing me to death, Mom and Dad

[Vinca]

44. The anti-vaxxers are too young to remember the horrors previous generations knew.

I hope they don't learn the hard way. Let's assume (for the sake of the argument) they are right - vaccines cause autism. Do you want a live child with autism or a dead child?

[McCamy Taylor]

51. Autism will probably turn out to be genetic combined with

intrauterine or early infancy (i.e. first few weeks) problems, since that is when the brain forms. A vaccine given at one year of life is not likely to cause it, since by one year the brain is more or less formed. Anyone who has been around a toddler knows that by one year you tell their personality.

I think MMR got the rap because it is given at one year and that is when people notice problems with talking.

[McCamy Taylor]

50. Age 7 had measles. Sickest I have ever been in my life.

And the handful of measles patients I have treated over the years have been the sickest people suffering from a virus that I have seen. This is not one of your "fun" childhood illnesses. Measles kills.

[Arugula Latte]

54. All schools and pediatricians' offices need a "no tolerance" policy on anti-vaxers.

You don't vaccinate? Then stay the f@#$ away from the rest of us.

[demigoddess]

56. modern medicine has done some stupid things

Hormone Replacement for menopause is one, chemotherapy, I believe, is another. But vaccines is one thing they got right. I have been immunized against many things, more than usual, and I am alive and healthy.

[valerief]

57. I had the measles as a kid. My sister and brother did, too. I don't remember feeling sick.

I liked spending my time on the living room sofa and watching TV all day. Every so often, I'd pop up to look in the big mirror over the sofa and look at my spotty face thinking, I'll look like this when I'm a teenager. I sort of did, on my forehead and chin anyway.

My experience is not to discount the severity of others' bouts with measles. I just remember what I went through--I Love Lucy, Busby Berkley musicals, the Gale Storm Show, the Millionaire, and the Garry Moore Show while my mother let me drink tea with lots of sugar. Those are my memories of the measles.

[Barack_America]

59. Congratulations on your good fortune.

[HuckleB]

60. K & R!

[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:
{snip}