"I'm old enough to remember thalidomide."

This person's bio says they are 49. The thalidomide scandal happened 63 years ago. The high profile court cases that re-energised the debate happened c. 45 years ago.

"Memory" is such a slippery thing.

This isn't about doubting sincerity or trying to get a "gotcha". The popular memory of thalidomide *does* outlive the crisis. I "remember" people talking about it when I was a kid. But I was born almost 30 years after it was banned.

But if you remember the effects of thalidomide, remember the entire story. The FDA refusing to licence it until it met standards. (Or at least Frances Oldham Kelsey. Google her.) The strengthened testing and monitoring procedures that were put in place.

Thalidomide was marketed in the UK by the same people who made Johnny Walker whisky. It was a 1950s attempt by other companies to get in on the pill game because they thought it would be lucrative. Pfizer are many things, but they're not a brewery out for a quick buck.

Questioning the long-term effects of this vaccine does not make you a moron, anti-vaxx or any other things aggressive rational bros want to throw at you. But please inform yourself of the WHOLE story, not just the scary and sensational bits.

If you want stories of doubt and the way scientists and public health authorities investigated that someone who is 49 probably *COULD* remember, I would be more interested in the long durée pertussis (c. 1974-85) and MMR (c. 1996-2010) vaccine crises...

This is equally unhelpful, by the way. There was plenty of evidence by this point of a link between smoking and lung cancer, and the idea that doctors thought it was "good" for you is a more than a stretch.

1950s pharmacy wasn't witchcraft.