Fact Check

Did Roald Dahl Urge Parents to Vaccinate Their Children?

The beloved children's author Roald Dahl lost his 7-year-old daughter Olivia to measles.

Published Feb. 1, 2015

 (Shutterstock)
Image Via Shutterstock
Claim:
In 1988 author Roald Dahl penned an open letter urging parents to have their children vaccinated against measles.

In January 2015 an open letter attributed to author Roald Dahl (best known for the classic children's book Charlie and the Chocolate Factory) titled "Measles: A Dangerous Illness" was widely circulated online due to a then-current measles outbreak that had prompted renewed debate over the importance of childhood vaccinations. It urged parents in no uncertain terms to ensure their children were immunized against that contagion.

Example:

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 childrens literature author Roald Dahl, who lost his daughter in 1962. Did he penned this letter?

Dahl indeed penned that letter back in 1988 for the Sandwell Health Authority in Britain shortly after a controversial measles, mumps and rubella vaccine (MMR) was introduced to the UK. Because much of the public was worried about the new vaccine, Dahl provided a personal account about the death of his 7-year-old daughter Olivia from measles in 1962 to persuade parents to get their children vaccinated:

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 [sic] 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.

Dahl was a proponent of immunization, but he rarely spoke about his daughter's death. He wrote the following heartbreaking account of taking his daughter into hospital after she had collapsed at home:

Awful drive. Lorries kept holding us up on narrow roads. Got to hospital. Ambulance went to wrong entrance. Backed out. Arrived. Young doctor in charge. Mervyn and he gave her 3mg sodium amatol. I sat in hall. Smoked. Felt frozen. A small single bar electric fire on wall. An old man in next room. Woman doctor went to phone. She was trying urgently to locate another doctor. He arrived. I went in. Olivia lying quietly. Still unconscious. She has an even chance, doctor said. They had tapped her spine. Not meningitis. It's encephalitis. Mervyn left in my car. I stayed. Pat arrived and went in to see Olivia. Kissed her. Spoke to her. Still unconscious. I went in. I said, "Olivia Olivia." She raised her head slightly off pillow. Sister said don't. I went out. We drank whiskey. I told doctor to consult experts. Call anyone. He called a man in Oxford. I listened. Instructions were given. Not much could be done. I first said I would stay on. Then I said I'd go back with Pat. Went. Arrived home. Called Philip Evans. He called hospital. Called me back. "Shall I come?" "Yes please." I said I'd tell hospital he was coming. I called. Doc thought I was Evans. He said I'm afraid she's worse. I got in the car. Got to hospital. Walked in. Two doctors advanced on me from waiting room. How is she? I'm afraid it’s too late. I went into her room. Sheet was over her. Doctor said to nurse go out. Leave him alone. I kissed her. She was warm. I went out. "She is warm." I said to doctors in hall, "Why is she so warm?" "Of course," he said. I left.

In a 1997 article published in People magazine, Dahl's wife, Patricia Neal, wrote Olivia's death in 1962 had practically driven the author insane:

Roald came back from the hospital and he cried. Oh, he cried. He had seen her dead. I unfortunately never did. My sisters-in-law talked me out of it. I wish they hadn't. I stayed up that first night just looking out the window. Your love is dead, and the sun still comes up. It's just so sad.

I was the strong one at that point. I don't want to brag about myself, but I've never seen anything like it. Roald really almost went crazy. I held everything together. I cooked all day and went on. Of course 34 years ago anything like a survivors' support group was virtually unheard of. You had to pull yourself together. I loved Olivia, loved her, but my God, I had two more children. I had to go on.

Over the years, I found that talking about Olivia helped immeasurably. Roald — who died in 1990 — couldn't say a word. It was locked inside him.

Roald Dahl's open letter was penned in 1988 but it is still frequently used as a vaccination encouragement tool by medical campaign groups such as the Encephalitis Society and the Oxford Vaccine Group.

Sources

Armistead, Claire.   "Roald Dahl Becomes Sage of US Measles Outbreak?"     The Guardian.   2 February 2015.

Castro, Peter.   "The Mourning After."     People.   31 March 1997.

David Mikkelson founded the site now known as snopes.com back in 1994.