Biden administration officials are promising a full investigation into the baby formula shortage, but they should start by looking in the mirror. The crisis came after Abbott Laboratories – which has 43 percent of the market – recalled formula made at its Michigan plant after complaints of bacterial infections.
The shortage can be traced to the Food & Drug Administration’s incompetence. A whistleblower contacted the FDA last October with concerns about the Abbott plant. But the FDA dawdled and didn’t interview the whistleblower for two months and never inspected the plant until this past January. Rosa De Lauro, the Democrat who chairs the House Appropriations Committee, asks “Why did it take four months to pull this formula off store shelves?”
Abbott says it is “doing everything” it can to address the shortage but its plant still remains shut. The firm is stepping up production at an FDA-approved plant in Ireland to try to meet demand. But 40 percent of baby formula products are out of stock across the United States.
How pathetic that our government is so incompetent that we have to get our baby formula from Ireland?