The late children’s author Roald Dahl was adamantly pro-vaccine. The Charlie and the Chocolate Factory author lost his oldest daughter, Olivia, to measles in 1962, a year before the vaccine came out.
In the 1986 letter, “Measles: A Dangerous Illness,” Dahl recounts the sad story of how the disease killed his daughter and stresses the importance of getting a measles vaccine. Here is an excerpt:
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.
(Via Electric Literature).