President Joe Biden met with the CEOs of baby-formula manufacturers this week to address the ongoing baby formula shortage. After the meeting, in a rare event, President Biden took questions from reporters.
When asked why the administration did not act sooner regarding the baby formula shortage, Biden answered:
I don't think anyone anticipated the impact of the shutdown of one facility — the Abbott facility. And it was accurately shut down because the formula was questioned, in terms of its purity.
Reporters then reminded the president that the CEOs just told him they knew that the FDA shuttering the Abbott facility would cause massive disruptions and shortages and that they sounded the alarm in February.
Biden responded:
They did, but I didn't.
Finally, the exasperated president said,
Here's the deal. I became aware of this problem sometime in late April… in early April, about how intense it was...
Considering the severity of the baby formula shortage that continues to get worse, the president not being briefed until 31% of stores were out of stock is concerning to say the least. Reporters tried to follow up with Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre, but she seemed equally befuddled by the reporters' questions and the president's comment:
"I have not spoken to the president. I know that he just said that a few moments ago, so I would have to talk to him about the April date."
While shortages of baby formula due to the supply chain were affecting the nation by the end of 2021, the FDA shuttered one of the nation's largest factories in February, the Abbott baby-formula factory in Sturgis, Michigan.
This caused shortages to increase substantially, with 70% of stores currently reporting formula is out of stock despite the Biden administration airlifting formula in from overseas.
Over the last two weeks, Biden's Operation Fly Formula has brought 3.7 million 8-ounce bottles worth of formula to U.S. shores from overseas, which is a lot, but considering babies need between about 16 and 32 ounces per day to be healthy, and there are about 3.5 million babies born every year, those supplies should last all of about 4 hours.
Abbott has announced a deal with the FDA and is expected to reopen its Sturgis factory this week, though they say it will take between 6-8 weeks for newly produced formula to hit the shelves, if it isn't bogged down in supply-chain issues.
That means the formula shortage will continue throughout the summer...
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