‘You cannot rush out new Covid drug... have they forgotten thalidomide?’
Survivor warns of danger posed by cutting corners
A THALIDOMIDE survivor from Northern Ireland has urged scientists to be wary of rushing out a vaccine for Covid-19.
Jacqueline Fleming was born with diminished arms and contorted hands after her mother was prescribed the drug during pregnancy in the early 1960s.
Some 10,000 babies worldwide were similarly affected.
It later emerged that thalidomide had not been properly tested on humans, and Ms Fleming told the Belfast Telegraph that what happened to her should be a stark warning to drug companies currently racing to find a coronavirus cure.
“Did they not learn from this 60 years ago?” she said.
“Have they not learned from the mistakes?
“I don’t think any drug should be on the market unless it’s properly tested.”
Ms Fleming (58) said updates about potential vaccines, which should take years to perfect but could be on the market as early as next year, made her “sick to the stomach”, especially as her own daughter is now expecting her first child.
The soon-to-be grandmother was born around the same time as thalidomide, a so-called “wonder drug” for sickness during pregnancy, was being withdrawn from the market.
By the time its shocking side effects were discovered, however, thousands of babies in the 46 countries where it was available as an over-the-counter remedy had either died or been born with severe birth defects.
It is estimated that 2,000 infants in the UK were affected, with fewer than 500 still alive today.
Ms Fleming said her pregnant mother Ida took it because “she was violently sick” adding that “she only took one pill”, which led to phocomelia, the failure of foetal limbs to properly develop.
“If you were born with no arms or legs, your mother had taken two pills,” the Co Down artist said.
It later emerged that thalidomide, manufactured by German pharmaceutical company Chemie Grunenthal Gmbh, had released the drug based on extensive testing of animals but not humans.
Despite the scandal and tragedy associated with it, thalidomide is still being used today as an effective treatment for specific medical conditions, including some forms of cancer.
One of the most difficult things for Ms Fleming to forgive is the fact that thalidomide was still being dispensed to people despite there being reservations at the time about its usage.
“The government knew there were problems with the drug whenever we had it,” she said.
“If they had taken heed and pulled thalidomide when they were first told about it, I think half of us wouldn’t have been born like this. But have they not learnt from that?”
Early trial results from the two main vaccine candidates — one developed by the University of Oxford and the other by the Chinese company Cansino Biologics — showed that both were safe and could induce immune responses in participants.
The next phase, however, will be critical in proving that the potential vaccines can actually protect against infections.
In normal circumstances, vaccine development is a long, complex process, often lasting a decade or more.
But with Covid-19 having already infected 15.5m people worldwide, and with over 633,000 deaths recorded, scientists are under pressure to produce an effective antidote within a few months.
News surrounding the race for a vaccine is something Jacqueline admitted gives her pause for thought — it would be her “worst nightmare” if history was to ever repeat itself — and her sensitivities are perhaps on higher alert than usual as she prepares to become a grandmother for the first time in November.
Daughter Sarah, who lives in Scotland, is expecting a boy and Jacqueline said: “Because of Covid, I haven’t seen her since she told me she was pregnant, so I’d like to go over in a few weeks depending on the lockdown restrictions.”
Growing up, Jacqueline, who has three children — Sarah (38), Charlotte (33) and Conor (29) said she and her mother never talked about thalidomide — never mind its catastrophic effects on her.
She did, however, reveal details of “the only conversation I had with my father about it”, recalling how little compassion there was back then for those born with her condition.
“Daddy said that whenever he arrived at the hospital, he gave the nurse his name and she went: ‘Oh that’s the armless baby’,” Ms Fleming said.
“He later told me that the walk up the hospital stairs that time was the longest walk of his life. Then he said to me, ‘but you had arms... little ones’.”
Apart from being in constant pain as a result of her lifelong physical defects, the mother-ofthree also told of her mental anguish during a very difficult time when her eldest child was having trouble at school.
“I was told by a teacher that she was getting bullied because I was the way I was and there was nothing that could be done about it,” Jacqueline said. The divorcee, who lives in Ballyfrenis, said her earliest realisation of being “different from other people” dated back to the birth of her sister, who is nine years her junior.
“When she was born I remember asking how many fingers she had,” said Ms Fleming.
“I don’t know why I asked that. I remember being nearly disappointed that she was the same as everybody else. It’s really silly, isn’t it?”
Notwithstanding her challenges, not least that she has to take painkillers “just to get out of bed in the morning”, Ms Fleming, who has asthma and is self-isolating during the pandemic, has always remained positive.
“I can’t remember a time when I haven’t been in pain,” she said.
“I was in labour with my first child and I didn’t realise it. I thought it was back pain.
“They said ‘no, you’re in full labour’.”
Nevertheless, Jacqueline, who has had seven major surgeries, said that it took Covid to remind her of her limitations.
“I was getting a new kitchen in just before lockdown,” she said.
“Then, for three months, I had no kitchen and I realised how vulnerable I was.
“It’s finished now, thank goodness. I can reach everything.
“It’s exactly what I wanted.”