The FDA knew as far back as October 2021 that there was a potential problem in an Abbott Labs plant where a large percentage of baby formula sold in the United States originates from. At that point, however, the agency was still consumed with Covid-19 and couldn’t be bothered with investigating whether there were issues of contamination in baby formula.
Jump a few months to January 2022 when the plant was shut down over questions of contamination, a sign that should’ve set off alarm bells for the domestic supply of baby formula but nobody in the government was paying attention.
Moving into March of this year, parents seeking formula for newborns and infants are noticing that shelves are more frequently empty than full, and products aren’t being restocked at a reasonable rate, or not restocked at all.
By May, the issue became a nationwide story and the White House quite literally laughs it off as some kind of right-wing smear from Fox News.
Finally, with the situation now dire, President Biden admits he wasn’t aware of any issues until April but now his administration is working hard to fix the problem:
As Americans across the US were still struggling to find baby formula Wednesday, President Biden claimed he was unaware of the crisis until early April — months after the FDA’s closure of a Michigan factory triggered the shortage.
Biden made the stunning claim following a virtual meeting with major formula manufacturers, moments after a top executive told the president “we knew from the very beginning” that a February recall and factory shutdown at leading manufacturer Abbott would cause major problems.
“The question you all ask on every single thing is, ‘Why didn’t you act sooner?’ Well, I don’t think anyone anticipated the impact of the shutdown of one facility — the Abbott facility,” Biden told reporters, referring to a manufacturer that is one of just four that supply 90% of the nation’s baby formula”
“And it was accurately shut down because it was, the formula was questioned in terms of its purity. And so, once we learned of the extent of it and how broad it was, we kicked everything into gear. And I think we are on the way to be able to completely solve the problem.”
“Didn’t those CEOs just tell you they understood it would have a very big impact?” one reporter asked.
“They did, but I didn’t,” Biden insisted.
It’s highly unlikely that no one in the administration knew anything before February. The warning signs were there, and the FDA was in close contact with Abbott and other manufacturers and understood the impact. The issue was a lack of urgency to do anything before the problem turned into a crisis.
Even CNN isn’t quite buying the Biden administration’s explanation for why the issue took so long to address:
One common theme of this administration has been to ignore and downplay until something reaches a fever pitch and no longer be ignored. That is the same gameplan Biden took on baby formula.
Ignore and defer until it reaches beyond the Fox News audience and other media outlets are forced to acknowledge reality. Many parents simply cannot find formula even after visiting four or five stores.
Unfortunately, the issue is still deteriorating and is expected to get worse before it gets better:
Meanwhile, data shows the shortage is getting worse, not better. On Wednesday, the Wall Street Journal, citing research firm IRI, reported that 23% of powdered baby formula was out of stock during the week ending May 22, compared with a 21% out-of-stock rate during the previous week. The normal out-of-stock range prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, according to the outlet, was between 5% and 7%.
The Abbott plant was closed in February after two infant deaths were believed to be linked to bacterial contamination at the plant. An investigation later failed to confirm a link.
The warning signs were there, but with an FDA that has been geared exclusively toward Covid-19 for two years, and suffering from “mailroom problems,” nothing was done:
On Tuesday, NBC News reported that Biden had only received an initial briefing about the baby formula shortage within the past month despite the plant closure happening several weeks earlier, a fact which purportedly “annoyed” the president.
Last week, Biden’s FDA Commissioner Robert Califf told lawmakers that the whistleblower report detailing unsanitary practices at the Michigan Abbott facility was lost in the FDA’s mailroom for months due to what Califf called a “technical issue.”
Lost in the mailroom “for months” is code for sitting on someone’s desk and no one cared. Then when they did care, they took minimal action. Nothing bubbled up to the level of concern that shutting down a formula plant on top of existing supply chain issues would create a perfect storm for parents. Once again, deny and downplay until a crisis reaches epic proportions.
The baby formula shortage is another area where the Biden administration failed to act ahead of time to prevent a simmering issue from becoming a serious problem. The fact that the FDA still hasn’t cleared the Abbott plant to reopen also begs questions about just how urgently the Biden administration is addressing the problem.
Goal number one should be re-opening the plant to fix production. Even when production starts, it will be weeks before products begin filling store shelves. Once that happens, desperate parents will continue hoarding formula out of fear that the issue isn’t yet fixed and a desire to avoid being stuck in the same situation down the road.
These government-created shortages, inflation, and supply chain problems resemble a third-world socialist country. This is Biden’s America.
