Thalidomide caused birth defects because it is in your system during pregnancy. Thalidomide is still in use to treat leprosy. Thalidomide does not cause second-generation birth defects.

>Thalidomide does not cause second-generation birth defects.

That's exactly what the parent commenter said. Your children are affected, but your first grandchildren should be safe.

The poster I responded to wrote: "Thalidomide is out of your system by your first grandchild." Actually, Thalidomide is out of your system within days. Quite a bit less time than it takes to have a grandchild.

The poster implies that there could be unknown long term effects of a vaccine, and conflates long term effects with birth defects, which, of course, appear only after a fetus has developed enough to spot defects in a sonogram or other imaging. It's a scare tactic.

You call it a scare tactic because you believe in medical interventionism. I respectfully point out one of the massive numbers of unexpected side effects of medical interventions.

Believe what you like. A thoughtfully considered medical intervention rescued my health. While patients need to be vigilant for errors and the best treatment is sometimes a matter of good fortune. there is no such things as "belief" in "medical interventionism." It makes as much sense as "weather forecastism" or "speed limitism."

Maybe you should understand what medical interventionism means, before typing out a meaningless and unrelated argument.

So if you break your arm…

... you go to a doctor to have it set and casted. Unless the break is so minor that you can self-treat with RICE. You don't have to be a passive recipient of a medical treatment flowchart.