BABY FORMULA SHORTAGE

The Slo Joe administration as an answer from the Surgeon General as to how to alleviate the shortage of baby formula.
"Biden Surgeon General Vivek Murthy to parents desperately searching for baby formula:
“check with your doctor’s office to see if they have samples."

This comment was on CNN and Murthy was in full dress uniform, perhaps he is getting ready to deploy to Sololia.

WIC and wasted governmental regs r the reality of the shortage......

time.com/6177128/baby-formula-congress-m...se%20in%20production .

Looks like the Feds are easing up on imported formula and the plant that was closed by the FDA has now re-opened. (It might take some time to refill shelves and you have to expect some mothers will buy more than normal just to be on the safe side.)

FredHayek wrote: Looks like the Feds are easing up on imported formula and the plant that was closed by the FDA has now re-opened. (It might take some time to refill shelves and you have to expect some mothers will buy more than normal just to be on the safe side.)

" once that plant was running again, it would take six to eight weeks for baby formula from there to return to store shelves." FROM THE LINK

www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/05/...UzI1NiJ9.eyJjb29raWV

because of Covid,plants were NOT being inspected AND

hat was supposed to change when Congress passed the Food Safety Modernization Act in 2011, which aimed to radically shift the FDA to a model that prevents food poisoning outbreaks.

Inspectors were supposed to identify potential food safety problems — and demand corrections — to keep bacterial contamination from spreading in food plants. Instead, Taylor said inspectors continue to take aggressive action mostly in cases in which the company’s conduct has already led to serious food-borne illnesses.

“They still need to shift from this historic reaction to a culture of prevention,” Taylor said. “What happened with the infant formula illustrates that.”

Structural changes made under the Trump administration further hampered communication in the agency, Taylor said. While Taylor was at the FDA, the two divisions for human and animal food products — the Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition and the Center for Veterinary Medicine — reported directly to him. This changed during the Trump administration when then-FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb, who did not return calls seeking comment, had the two units report directly to him. This structure has not changed under the Biden administration.

Didn't take long. Formulagate is Trump's fault.

Before we get to the above, you should know the following: because the WaPo won't tell you, evidently the WaPo didn't find it fit their hit piece.

"Five strains of bacteria found at infant formula plant; none match samples from two patients."
www.foodsafetynews.com/2022/04/five-stra...s-from-two-patients/

Now let's look at this portion of the article cited:
"That was supposed to change when Congress passed the Food Safety Modernization Act in 2011, which aimed to radically shift the FDA to a model that prevents food poisoning outbreaks."

I don't believe that Trump was President in 2011, Obama was. To the best of my knowledge he took office in Jan, 2017. 6 yrs later. WaPo doesn't tell us what was done during those 6 years. Yet,
Taylor states that
"Structural changes made under the Trump administration further hampered communication in the agency," What was Taylor doing those 6 yrs prior to the Trump Administration making those structural changes? Inquiring minds swould like to know.

Yup, a very weak argument once again. The end of her quote also said “This structure has not changed under the Biden administration “. This problem was known in 2021 and Biden has been in charge for 14 months. Just like the Afghanistan fubar, Biden had plenty of time to take wise actions, but as usual he failed.

"In shutting down the Abbott plant, the FDA was acting from a zero-risk mentality in its own bailiwick—protecting infant formula from factory contamination—with zero regard for costs and risks that would be somebody else’s problem. These include a nightmare for parents and a risk of malnutrition for thousands of newborns, particularly those in need of doctor-prescribed formulas that only the Michigan factory produced."

www.wsj.com/articles/can-infants-survive...d=opinion_lead_pos11

Distressingly similar to what was done with the Covid lockdowns by career bureaucrats.

The following are 2 comments from readers of this article:
Darlene Vandewater
17 hours ago

This is the problem with government agencies, in a nutshell. Most of them operate under their own terms, with no accountability, no skin in the game, no incentive to do anything other than guard their turf and rake in as much taxpayer oeny as they can get for their fiefdom.

oeny = money (typo in comment)

Steve B
16 hours ago

It's a prime example of CYA where weighing anything beyond their own career is of zero importance. No care with how this may affect parents and especially infants who depend on formula for their nutrition. Not all babies can tolerate for one reason or another breast milk and not all mothers can nurse

"In shutting down the Abbott plant, the FDA was acting from a zero-risk mentality in its own bailiwick—protecting infant formula from factory contamination—with zero regard for costs and risks that would be somebody else’s problem. These include a nightmare for parents and a risk of malnutrition for thousands of newborns, particularly those in need of doctor-prescribed formulas that only the Michigan factory produced."

www.wsj.com/articles/can-infants-survive...d=opinion_lead_pos11

Distressingly similar to what was done with the Covid lockdowns by career bureaucrats.

The following are 2 comments from readers of this article:
Darlene Vandewater
17 hours ago

This is the problem with government agencies, in a nutshell. Most of them operate under their own terms, with no accountability, no skin in the game, no incentive to do anything other than guard their turf and rake in as much taxpayer oeny as they can get for their fiefdom.

oeny = money (typo in comment)

Steve B
16 hours ago

It's a prime example of CYA where weighing anything beyond their own career is of zero importance. No care with how this may affect parents and especially infants who depend on formula for their nutrition. Not all babies can tolerate for one reason or another breast milk and not all mothers can nurse

CYA HAS ALWAYS been the m.o. of corp./gov./pharmco. That and pass the buck ...round and round,so no body has to be accountable.

Here's a story that illustrates the above......nothing has changed,after DECADES of CYA.

My dept in AT&T was 800 toll free provisioning.....orders would come from sales dept for line installations.
Customer would want/demand a specific due date.and the sales rep would say YES THAT DOABLE,and
write the order for said due date.

Order received into our system (after processing thru Ma Bell,US West or other local company .
the FOC (FIRM ORDER COMPLETION,when facilities became available for installation) was beyond (sometimes way beyond) the promised DD (due date). Provisioning calls customer,explains the installation process in simple terms and gets royally reamed for DD being missed.

Provisioning agent then escalates the problem to supervisor. Supervisor calls SALES SUPV. and is told
"we sell it", U put it in"....make it so.

Order gets expedited (by irate customer) and everyone then jumps thru hoops to get installation DD as close to customers demand.....customer pissed,agents frustrated, and SALES gets their bonus because
they made above their quota by NOT telling the customer the truth..NO THAT DD IS NOT DOABLE.

Provisioning agent gets the screw job because THEY r the first interface after sales rep.