How Roald Dahl became a passionate vaccine advocate

By Tom Solomon, Director of the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Health Protection Research Unit in Emerging and Zoonotic Infections, and Professor of Neurology, University of Liverpool, University of Liverpool

To Olivia, a new film on Sky Cinema, captures the year (1962) that author Roald Dahl’s daughter died of measles encephalitis. The death of seven-year-old Olivia nearly tore the family apart. This terrible story will be new to many people, but it’s not new to me. I first heard it 30 years ago from Dahl himself.

I was a junior doctor in Oxford and 74-year-old Dahl was my patient. He was hospitalised with a rare form of leukaemia, and every third night when I was on call, we…

Read complete article

~	UK’s newly passed ‘Safety in Rwanda’ bill is anything but safe: UN officials

~	Sticking your neck out for the PWHL: A call to mandate neck guards in women’s hockey

~	International student resentment brews but allowing fewer students into Canada isn’t the answer

~	From Gallipoli to Gaza: remembering the Anzacs not as a ‘coming of age’ tale but as a lesson for the future

~	The high and mighty Himalayas: A biodiversity hotbed facing significant challenges

~	Why the term ‘DEI’ is being weaponized as a racist dog whistle

~	How studying trends in human lifespans can measure progress in addressing inequality

~	Is it possible to ‘objectively’ judge music? We asked 5 experts

~	Can a drug like Ozempic help treat addictions to alcohol, opioids or other substances?

~	Half our colleagues suffer pain and discomfort from periods. But they’re still a taboo subject at work