This stanza in “We Didn’t Start the Fire” has confused many:
> Little Rock, Pasternak, Mickey Mantle, Kerouac.
> Sputnik, Chou En-Lai, Bridge on the River Kwai.
> Lebanon, Charles de Gaulle, California baseball.
> Starkweather homicide, children of thalidomide.
Lots of people hear that last line as “children of the little mind,” but it’s thalidomide. A medication still used today to treat cancer and leprosy, when it was first introduced in West Germany in 1957, it was sold over-the-counter as a wonder drug said to be impossible to overdose on, that could be used as a painkiller, a tranquilizer, stress relief, or a sleep aid.
Unfortunately, it turned out the drug has serious side effects if taken by expectant mothers, or even by their sexual partner — the babies were born with stunted limbs or no limbs at all, and other serious birth defects.
Even more tragically, thalidomide was specifically marketed to pregnant women as a cure for morning sickness.
Available in the late 1950s in Europe, Canada, and Africa, the drug was not approved for use in the United States thanks to the efforts of one woman: Dr. Frances Oldham Kelsey. She was hired by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in 1960, and one of her first assignments was to review the application for thalidomide to be used in the United States. As it had already been approved for use in more than 20 other countries, the newly hired Kelsey could have rubberstamped the application. But she didn’t. She requested further studies and additional information. She withstood heavy pressure from the drug’s manufacturer, Grünenthal, to approve it. But she stood her ground.
During the delay, reports began to come out of West Germany about birth defects, most dramatically the limb problems. The birth defects were linked to thalidomide. Today, its use is carefully regulated, and those who take it are warned to use birth control if sexually active.
Kelsey’s stand against the drug and the realization that she had spared untold numbers of American babies from birth defects led to the Kefauver Harris Amendment of 1962, strengthening the FDA’s role in drug regulation.
Kelsey worked at the FDA until 2005, retiring at age 90. Since 2010, the FDA has annually honored an outstanding employe
... keep reading on reddit ➡Thalidomide was blocked from being used in the United States by the FDA thus sparing thousands of infants from severe deformities and a 40% death rate.
My mother used this terrible drug, and my sister was born with no discernible limbs, and several of her internal organs on the outside - or partially outside - of her body. She lived 13 days.
Edited to add that, as someone else pointed out, this article is from 2015. So her passing wasn't recent. Sorry for the misinformation about the timing. Her story is pretty amazing, though. Especially in the 60's.
