Did you ever hear the tragedy of Nellie Burnham?
I thought not.
It’s not a story the anti-vaccine influencers would tell you.
Did You Ever Hear the Tragedy of Nellie Burnham?
Nellie Burnham was a 10-year-old girl living in Gloucester, England in the early 1920s.
In 1924, she got sick and was “cared for” by Walter Hadwen.
Tragically, she got worse, was treated by another physician, but died.
It was found that she had diphtheria, and because she had not been given diphtheria antitoxin, which was available at the time, Walter Hadwen was indicted for her death.
Although Hadwen was found not guilty, it was because he seemed to convince the jury that he didn’t think that Nellie Burnham actually had diphtheria…
Of note, Walter Hadwen believed that diphtheria antitoxin was useless and dangerous.
“I see no sense in taking a swab. I discarded the whole of the germ theory in all diseases; I believe it is an absolutely unscientific idea.”
Walter Hadwen
And he was a germ-theory denialist.
A germ theory denialist who wrote anti-vaccine books and pamphlets.
An anti-vaccine, germ theory denialist who you can see was wrong simply by looking at the history of diphtheria!
Diphtheria mortality has fallen thanks to treatments and interventions, like diphtheria antitoxin and diphtheria toxoid (vaccine).
But it took longer to get diphtheria under control in the UK, mostly thanks to anti-vaccine influencers like Walter Hadwen.
For the time being, though, there was a hiatus in UK, lasting into the 1940s. Consequently, with no routine diphtheria immunization in place, 2500–3000 children were dying of the disease each year. Ramon referred to ‘Angleterre refractaire’, and E. H. R. Harries, a leading English infectious diseases specialist, wrote despairingly in 1942 that the continuing morbidity and mortality from diphtheria ‘must seem fantastic to foreign observers.’
The diphtheria vaccine debacle of 1940 that ushered in comprehensive childhood immunization in the United Kingdom
But they eventually got it done!
“By the close of the Second World War the evidence of success was clear. What had been achieved in North America and elsewhere a decade and more earlier was being replicated in the UK. Childhood death rates from diphtheria fell from 38·5/100 000 in 1934 to 9·2/100 000 in 1944; by 1949 mortality and morbidity had both fallen more than tenfold from pre-war levels.”
The diphtheria vaccine debacle of 1940 that ushered in comprehensive childhood immunization in the United Kingdom
Now we just have to work to make sure anti-vaccine influencers don’t bring it back!