If you think prescription drugs are getting more dangerous, you are right. Once upon a time if a drug were linked to dangerous side effects or deaths, it would simply not be approved. End of story. Now, the risks are transferred to the patient in the form of detailed warnings on the label and TV commercials.
This provides a false sense of security. Most patients still believe a doctor would not prescribe a drug if it weren't safe and doctors still believe the FDA would not approve a drug it weren't safe. In many cases, both have barely noticed the take-at-your-own-risk status of many prescription drugs which once would not have been approved.
The parade of injected biologic drugs that currently dominate the advertising "space,"–– Humira, Dupixent and Stelara––would once not have been approved because of their serious side effects like immunosuppression in light of the minor conditions they address. Some suggest the wide swath of citizens taking advertised biologics explained the US' Covid dramatic toll compared to countries with populations not on immunosuppressing drugs.