BABY BOTTLE BLAME
FDA: Distribution
Although his agency shut down the nation’s largest baby-formula factory for months, the head of the Food and Drug Administration on Monday blamed a “distribution problem” for the empty formula shelves in stores across the US, as lawmakers fumed about a lackluster federal response to the crisis.
“I don’t want this to sound in any way like we’re not concerned about the parents that are struggling to find formula,” FDA Commissioner Robert Califf said on CNN.
“That’s definitely happening in parts of the country. But, you know, the number of stock on shelves is about 90% before . . . the recall, and it dropped to about 79% at its lowest, and we’re on the way back up now.”
Califf insisted that “there is formula out there” and blamed the shortages on a February recall by supplier Abbott Nutrition of namebrand formulas produced at its plant in Sturgis, Mich.
President Biden has drawn heat for claiming on Friday that authorities could have dealt with the situation more effectively only “if we’d been better mind readers, I guess.”
WH damage control
In her first press briefing, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre sidestepped Biden’s remark when asked about it by CNN’s MJ Lee on Monday.
“This doesn’t seem like a situation that would have required mind reading,” Lee said. “Politico reported months ago that the FDA was first warned about the suspected bacteria issue as early as September. Are there any specific actions that this administration took . . . to begin addressing this potential shortage?”
Jean-Pierre gave a lengthy response that did not give details on what Biden’s team was doing since February.
Also Monday, the secondranking Senate Republican claimed the formula shortage came about because the Biden administration lacks “competence.”
“It’s typical in this administration [that] they want to blame someone else,” Sen. John Thune (R-SD) told “Fox & Friends.” “This is another on a long list of examples in the Biden economy of products that people either can’t get or are paying a lot more for.”
On the Democratic side, Rep. Rosa DeLauro (Conn.) accused Abbott of having “put profit over people” by continuing to sell formula suspected of bacterial contamination. But she also ripped the FDA for failing to alert parents about the issue in a timely manner.
“The company was aware of the failure, and they attempted to hide that info from the FDA, and the FDA just dragged their feet in making this public,” DeLauro said.
In an interview with NBC’s “Today” show, Califf said it was “within the realm of possibility — and in fact, I think, quite likely” for the Abbott plant to be back up and running within two weeks. It would then be six to eight weeks before its product is in stores.
Califf is set to appear before the House Appropriations Committee, chaired
by DeLauro, on Thursday.