Diphtheria Trailer (1942)

Titles read: “OFFICIAL GOVERNMENT FILM - HAVE YOU HAD YOUR CHILD IMMUNISED AGAINST DIPHTHERIA?“ In a children’s hospital ward we see a worried mother sitting at the bedside of her young son. He has diphtheria and is not expected to live. Dreamlike flashback shows the mother and her son looking at a poster urging for mothers to have their children immunised against diphtheria. The mother says she doesn’t want him done. Next flashback shows other children asking Alfie why he hasn’t been done; he says “Mum won’t let me“. Back in the ward we see a doctor examining poor Alfie. He takes off his stethoscope and looks at the camera, saying, “This child need not have died. He could have been immunised and so protected against diphtheria“. Animated diagrams illustrate the results of an immunisation programme in Scotland the previous year. Only one of those children immunised died of diphtheria; over 400 of those not immunised died. Montage of shots shows a woman preparing to give a child an injec