One of my personal heroes is a woman named Dr. Frances Oldham Kelsey. You may not know her name, but you probably know part of her story.
In 1960, Dr. Kelsey, a pharmacologist (who had only gotten her first job in pharmacology because the professor who hired her misread her name as the male “Francis”), was working as a medical reviewer at the Food and Drug Administration. She was a nameless, faceless (well, except to her family and friends, I guess) bureaucrat.
In her first month on the job, and as her first drug review assignment, an application to approve a drug called Kevadon came across her desk. This drug was already being widely sold in Europe. The pharmaceutical company, no doubt hot to trot in the larger American market, assumed FDA approval would be a rubber stamp situation. But Dr. Kelsey wasn’t convinced by the marketing materials, and she asked for more safety data.
The William S. Merrell Co. began a pressure campaign on Dr. Kelsey, including meeting with her, her supervisors and the FDA commissioner. The company had millions of doses of Kevadon waiting in warehouses, and it wanted to start selling. It even called her safety concerns “slightly libelous,” a phrase that inherently threatens legal action.
But Dr. Kelsey held strong and demanded the safety data. As that process was ongoing at the FDA, scientists in Europe, where the drug had been on the market (often over the counter) for years, began reporting a rash of birth defects in newborns — missing or stunted limbs and organs. Many of the infants didn’t survive long. The birth defects were quickly linked to the drug Kelsey had concerns about — better known today by its generic name, thalidomide.
Recognize that name, don’t you?
I’ve been thinking about Dr. Kelsey for two reasons. One is I have a baby of my own now, whose perfectly developed legs are currently kicking me in the chest. And the second reason is the prevention of widespread thalidomide distribution in America was a high point of American governance.
I mean, can you honestly think an event like that would unfold the same way today? I wonder what the result of a lobbying campaign like this today would be. Probably the president would write a mean tweet about her.
Or maybe her position would have been cut by DOGE. She could have been replaced with a shoddy AI. Or maybe she would toil on in anonymity and obscurity as Fox News ran hit pieces on her, called her a member of the “deep state” and internet petitions and hashtags circulated for her to be fired.
Or, because she was a woman concerned with the effects of drugs on women in pregnancy, she would be fired for illegal DEI. (That’s diversity, equity and inclusion — our new 21st century Red Scare.)
Does anyone seriously think that if a safety disagreement between an FDA scientist and a company with money occurred today, the FDA scientist would win? According to OpenSecrets.org (a great resource if you’re interested in following money in politics), the pharmaceutical industry and its political action committees donated over $16 million to candidates in the 2024 election cycle, split almost evenly between Republicans and Democrats (Republicans got about $1.5 million more). And that’s just the tip of the iceberg.
Government, at its best, is about serving and protecting the American people (establishing justice, ensuring domestic tranquility and all that). Right now, our government is not doing that. It’s bombing Venezuela, probably so that oil companies can make a buck. It’s cutting child care funding (literally the day after I sent in an application for assistance!). It’s cutting food and health care benefits for average Americans, while also cutting taxes (which could be used to pay for those food and health care benefits) for the rich.
It’s wearing a mask and snatching American citizens, and anyone who “looks like” they might be an immigrant, off the streets. Even the FDA is being used as a political attack dog. Currently the FDA is going after manufacturers and sellers of chest binders, claiming they should be registered as “medical devices” and threatening action against the manufacturers.
First of all, chest binders are basically advanced sports bras. There is no universe in which they should be treated the same as, say, a surgically implanted pacemaker. But more importantly it’s pretty clear the current FDA commissioner is going after the transgender and non gender-conforming community, not to mention the large bust community (of which I am a member).
They’re pretending this is a medical concern, but the commissioner of the FDA, Marty Makary, said in his press conference, “Pushing transgender ideology in children is predatory, it’s wrong, and it needs to stop.” He admits this is an ideological issue, not a medical issue.
Since the beginning of the Trump administration, longtime public servants, who have years or decades of experience, have been pushed out of government, and their knowledge went with them. When Trump leaves office, it will take a long time to rebuild state capacity, and as Joni Mitchell wisely said, “You don’t know what you got til it’s gone.”
We may not appreciate the anonymous Frances Oldham Kelseys of today until it’s too late. But I think it’s important, these days, to remember that the government can be a force for good. It was once. It can be again.