Florida’s top public health official is calling on the Biden administration to do more to relieve the baby formula shortage hitting families in the Sunshine State and across the country.
In a letter dated Thursday to Robert Califf, director of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, Surgeon General Dr. Joseph Ladapo said the Florida Department of Health has done its part to try to secure baby formula for needy families, but that it’s time for the federal government to do more.
Ladapo recalled in the letter that in February when the FDA issued a recall warning about products from an Abbott Laboratories facility in Michigan that produced the bulk of the formula consumed in America – and which eventually shattered in the face of the recall order – the state of Florida worked with retailers to find other sources. But that has not been enough.
The department was searching for formula to provide to families enrolled in the Women, Infants and Children program as well as those with children facing “medically complex” issues.
“While we found alternative products in an effort to offset the shortage caused by the FDA’s lack of oversight, the cost of these alternatives remains high, and the availability is low,” Ladapo wrote. “Floridians are worried about the lack of formula availability.”
“Time is of the essence to restart production at the Abbott facility, yet the FDA has failed to produce any preliminary findings necessary to begin the reopening process and update the nation on this issue.”
“As a father, doctor, and Surgeon General of the State of Florida, I respectfully request open channels of communication for routine updates on the expected time the supply chain will be impacted and the most viable path to reissuing sufficient nationwide formula supplies,” Ladapo added.
“We stand ready to assist in any capacity that we are able in order to expedite a resolution of the pressing problem for immunocompromised infants and their families across the great state of Florida and our blessed Nation.”
In a statement earlier this week, Califf insisted the Biden administration was doing all it could to restore the supply lines.
“We recognize that many consumers have been unable to access infant formula and critical medical foods they are accustomed to using and are frustrated by their inability to do so. We are doing everything in our power to ensure there is adequate product available where and when they need it,” Califf said in a statement.
“Ensuring the availability of safe, sole-source nutrition products like infant formula is of the utmost importance to the FDA. Our teams have been working tirelessly to address and alleviate supply issues and will continue doing everything within our authority to ensure the production of safe infant formula products.”
The FDA acted and the recall was issued after four infants got sick with bacterial infections, reportedly from formula made at Abbott’s lab. Two of them died.
The Abbott facility has remained closed even though it is likely not the culprit.
The FDA and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reportedly told NBC News that “none of the bacterial strains taken at the Abbott plant matched those collected from the infants, and the agencies haven’t offered an explanation for how the contamination occurred,” the network reported.
The FDA has opted to release some formulas on a case-by-case basis, but broader production still seems stifled.
The libertarian Cato Institute reported this week, “Recently, the FDA recalled some European infant formula because it did not comply with FDA labeling requirements. It is agreed by many medical experts that the differences between American and European formula are minor and are not worth the expense imposed by these regulations.”
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