[vram22]

>now as a society we uncover problems, we fix them. We're doing pretty well.

Doing pretty well?

Doubt if the parents of all those severely deformed thalidomide-affected babies, or the babies themselves, would agree:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thalidomide

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thalidomide_scandal

[loeg]

That was extremely sad event for a relatively short period of time and small percentage of American families, but it certainly isn't worse than the average child or maternal mortality rate of the 19th century.

[vram22]

Not only American.

[Turing_Machine]

Almost all not American. Thalidomide was never approved for general use in the United States -- in fact, the FDA rejected it six times. As a result only 17 thalidomide babies were born here. Today, it is used for several conditions, but never in pregnant women, or women who might become pregnant.

[vram22]

Yes. One of the Wikipedia articles I linked above, talks about and has a photo of an official receiving an award from the then US president, from preventing thalidomide from being approved for use in the US (early on).

And yet there were deaths.

So, not only American.

Plus, the article itself says many non-American deaths happened.