'One of the most significant medical scandals in Irish history'
Thalidomide story should trigger modern day safety alert
The story of the Irish thalidomide scandal bears some deeply concerning parallels to a situation currently playing out in real time.
Broadcast this evening on RTE 1, Scannal: Thalidomide, illustrates how mothers that took the drug during pregnancy believing it was safe, unknowingly caused harm to their children.
Just five of these mothers remain alive today, all aged in their eighties and nineties.
“This is arguably the first time the whole story of how the Irish State has dealt with the thalidomide scandal has been told,” RTE said, promoting the documentary.
An astonishing revelation, considering the consequences borne out by the victims, forty of whom remain alive today, now aged in their sixties.
Thalidomide was a widely used drug in the late 1950s and early 1960s for the treatment of nausea in pregnant women. It became apparent in the 1960s that thalidomide treatment resulted in severe birth defects in thousands of children, but the Scannal documentary shows it remained on the shelves of Irish pharmacies despite its withdrawal from global markets.
The 'Thalidomide tragedy' led to the establishment of the Irish Medicines Board in 1966, which later in 2014 became the Health Products Regulatory Authority (HPRA.)
Columnist Terry Prone, writing in the Irish Examiner yesterday (Oct 3), described awareness of the situation back in 1960’s Ireland:
“You barely had time to turn on Radio Éireann, never mind read a newspaper; and anyway, neither would cover the Softenon (a market name for thalidomide) issue at the time. Mainly because they didn’t know about it. It took a few doctors on the continent to register the statistics and work back to the cause: Softenon. Although in their country, it mightn’t have been called that. It might have had another brand name. One way or the other, as it moved from miracle drug to killer and maimer, it became known as thalidomide.”
“What Scannal: Thalidomide establishes is that Ireland, as a State, colluded in the causation of many of the damaged lives,” Terry Prone wrote in her column.
In present day Ireland we have a situation whereby the HPRA and the Health Service executive (HSE) are aware of previously unknown outcomes concerning Covid 19 vaccines, that are circulating in peer reviewed studies.
These include the passing of mRNA to babies via breastmilk and the distribution of spike protein through the body. Both are proven outcomes resulting from studies. These are revelatory outcomes, because as vaccine manufacturer Pfizer stated, neither the current vaccines (nor the booster shots) were trialled on babies.
Neither have these two proven outcomes been widely publicised by public health authorities or by the media.
The result is we have a situation whereby the HPRA and the HSE are continuing to offer advice to pregnant and breastfeeding mothers, despite scientific studies showing the C19 vaccine products are behaving in ways we were previously told they would not.
The HSE and HPRA have been made aware of the study and are reviewing it, the HSE press office said in a statement. But presented with the questions outlined here:
The public health authority’s reply was as follows:
“We have nothing to add to our original statement.”
Press officers for the HPRA never engaged with the initial query I submitted regarding the Jama Pediatrics breastmilk study , on Sept 27, a week ago today.
A quick check of the official HSE advice on pregnancy, breastfeeding and fertility shows that it has not been updated.
The current HSE advice:
“If you have not had any COVID-19 vaccines, you can get your first round of COVID-19 vaccination or first booster at any stage of your pregnancy.”
“If you had a booster dose before this pregnancy, you can get your second booster at or after 16 weeks of your pregnancy.”
“COVID-19 vaccines do not affect breastfed babies. There is no known reason to avoid breastfeeding if you are vaccinated.”
“But COVID-19 vaccines are new. We are still learning about them. There is limited data on the safety of COVID-19 vaccines in pregnancy. They were not tested on pregnant women during clinical trials. Trials are now taking place.”
https://www2.hse.ie/screening-and-vaccinations/covid-19-vaccine/get-the-vaccine/pregnancy/
The HSE webpage was last updated on August 17 2022 at 5.25pm.
The Scannal documentary told how sales of thalidomide made it the second biggest selling drug in the world at the time.
“So there was a lot of profit being made,” radio producer Doireann Ní Bhriain told the programme.
At the same time, the FDA in America had not approved the drug due to concerns over ‘ insufficient testing.’
In Ireland, the drug was available over the counter.
In November 1961 it was withdrawn from international markets. But it remained available in Ireland for months after. It was never mentioned in the media, until August 1962, the documentary notes.
As the damage became apparent, the Department of Health asked Dr Victoria Coffey to put together a report on the ‘malformed children’ born in Ireland between July 1 1961 and July 30 1962.
“This report was never published. Not only that, but she (Dr Coffey) had to promise not to speak to the media,” journalist Bernie Ní Fhlaharta said.
“It was so innocently done, it was such an ordinary household thing, you accepted it in good faith, that whatever you were told to take was the right thing to take,” Irish Thalidomide Association spokeswoman Finola Cassidy said.
Members of the association are still seeking an apology, sixty years later. They met Taoiseach Michael Martin last month.
“In particular those five or six remaining mothers, there is only about five mums left, they are all in their 80’s and 90’s. They want to hear the apology, they want to know that the matter is resolved for their children and they deserve that after sixty years,” Ms Cassidy said in a Virgin Media News segment broadcast last month.
How long will it take the HSE and HPRA to acknowledge the flaws in their own advice?
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Further reading:
https://www.rte.ie/archives/2019/1122/1094505-investigating-the-thalidomide-injustice/
Watch the Scannal documentary (it’s 24 mins long):
https://www.rte.ie/player/series/scannal/SI0000001504?epguid=IH000415460
Hi Louise,
I run a Catholic You Tube channel called Mystic Post TV. (70,000 subscribers) I really liked your article about the exorcism in Mejdugorje. I was wondering if I could use it for a video. Better yet I was wondering if you would want to participate in the video i.e. narrate / voice over. thanks steve ryan