Its unfair to compare Thalidomide and vaccines.
How is it unfair? Thalidomide was touted as a cure all for morning sickness in pregnancy and GPs everywhere gave it to their pregnant patients as a preventative measure before proper testing was completed. When babies started being born missing limbs it was ignored, pushed to the side, blamed on environmental issues until the anecdotal evidence provided by emotional parents was too loud to ignore. And shock horror, they realised that Thalidomide was the problem.

From where I'm sitting it's exactly the same scenario.