I had a full-blown case of red measles at the age of eight, and my whole family suffered along with me. I was too sick to pay much attention at the time, but my parents were terrified; Dad never had measles as a child, and could well have died of it had it finally got him at age 42. Fortunately, the very first preventive against measles — gamma globulin — had just become available in Canada, so the money was found to inoculate Dad and my brothers, who experienced only a much attenuated version of the disease.

This is one topic that I think elders should bang on about until they have beaten a healthy (!) respect for highly transmissible illnesses into their younger friends and relatives.