Thalidomide is trending.

I didn't study very niche parts of British social and medical policy for it all to hit the public discourse shit fan at once, guys.

Thalidomide was a central concern over the 1970s UK scare over whooping cough vaccine. "The science" supported the vaccine, but - understandably - parents were worried that the medical establishment and government regulators could have got it wrong again.

It didn't help that the Medical Research Council had shredded most of its data from the 1950s/60s trials on the vaccine, assuming the work was done and the question settled.

Vaccine rates plummeted even further than MMR did in the 90s.

They only recovered after scientists and the government reassured the public and - sadly - accurately predicted there would be a whooping cough epidemic the following winter.

All this to say: sure, it is possible to be wrong. 1950s doctors believed it was impossible for thalidomide to do the damage it did because they didn't test it properly or ask the right questions. (At least in the UK...)

A lot has been learnt since then.

I have much scarier vaccine stories for you if you really want something to be worried about, and it would be far more relevant to vaccine trial data than thalidomide.

Oh, another thing - the thalidomide/whooping cough scare led to the creation of the Vaccine Damage Payments Scheme, the origins of which I can bore you with here... https://twitter.com/MillieQED/status/863764075616108545?s=20