ow A “Petty Bureaucrat” Saved America from Thalidomide

In 1960, one woman was all that stood between American families and a medical disaster of epidemic proportions. In this episode, the story of how that woman saved untold numbers of children and how all of us today are better off for her mostly-forgotten legacy.

References

Erick, M. (n.d.). Frances Kathleen Oldham Kelsey. National Women’s History Museum. Retrieved May 13, 2025, from https://www.womenshistory.org/education-resources/biographies/frances-kathleen-oldham-kelsey

Hooper, C. L., & Henderson, D. R. (2024). Two Thalidomide Disasters: Myths about the FDA’s role in the thalidomide tragedy have resulted in decades of it obstructing many beneficial drugs. Regulation, 47(4), 8+. https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/A828313658/GPS?u=vol_b733s&sid=bookmark-GPS&xid=abff486b

Janik, E., & Jensen, M. B. (2011). Giving them what they want: the Reinharts and quack medicine in Wisconsin. The Wisconsin Magazine of History, 94(4), 28–41. http://www.jstor.org/stable/41331156

Kean, S. (2024). “Frances Oldham Kelsey, the FDA, and the battle against thalidomide” review: The noble bureaucrat [Review of “Frances Oldham Kelsey, the FDA, and the battle against thalidomide” by C. Warsh]. Wall Street Journal. https://www.wsj.com/arts-culture/books/frances-oldham-kelsey-the-fda-and-the-battle-against-thalidomide-review-the-noble-bureaucrat-7f1fc379

Kean. S. (Host). (2024, November 12). The woman who ‘turned back a plague of Old Testament proportions’ [Audio podcast episode]. In The Disappearing Spoon. Science History Institute. 

Knaier, R. G. (2017). Homeopathy on trial: “Allen v. Hyland’s, Inc.” and a failure of evidentiary gatekeeping. Jurimetrics, 57(3), 361–396. http://www.jstor.org/stable/26322714

Kriplin, N. (2017, February 5). The heroine of the FDA. Discover Magazine. https://www.discovermagazine.com/health/the-heroine-of-the-fda

McFadden, R. D. (2015, August 7). Frances Oldham Kelsey, who saved U.S. babies from thalidomide, dies at 101. The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/08/science/frances-oldham-kelsey-fda-doctor-who-exposed-danger-of-thalidomide-dies-at-101.html

McGovern, James. “Quieter Things: The Tale Of Frances Oldham Kelsey.” Boulevard, no. 104-105, spring 2020, pp. 209+. Gale Academic OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A625413665/GPS?u=vol_b733s&sid=bookmark-GPS&xid=8681eca8. Accessed 9 May 2025.

Phillips, S. (2020, March 9). How a courageous physician-scientist saved the U.S. from a birth-defects catastrophe. Forefront. https://www.uchicagomedicine.org/forefront/biological-sciences-articles/courageous-physician-scientist-saved-the-us-from-a-birth-defects-catastrophe

Wikipedia Contributors. (2024, August 26). Marion Merrell Dow. Wikipedia; Wikimedia Foundation. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marion_Merrell_Dow

Wikipedia Contributors. (2025a, January 3). Elixir sulfanilamide. Wikipedia; Wikimedia Foundation. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elixir_sulfanilamide

Wikipedia Contributors. (2025b, March 8). Frances Oldham Kelsey. Wikipedia; Wikimedia Foundation. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frances_Oldham_Kelsey

Wikipedia Contributors. (2025c, May 10). Food and Drug Administration. Wikipedia; Wikimedia Foundation. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Food_and_Drug_Administration#History

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