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Abbott Refutes White House Attempt To Blame It For Biden Baby Formula Fiasco

Abbott Refutes White House Attempt To Blame It For Biden Baby Formula Fiasco

Psaki smears manufacturer on her last day as Press Secretary. Abbott responds: “At the White House press conference today, the Press Secretary mistakenly said that our formulas were tainted and killed two infants…. The facts, however, are critical: A comprehensive investigation by Abbott, FDA and CDC found no evidence that our formulas caused infant illnesses.”

I have a vivid imagination, but I cannot dream-up any scenario in which the Biden administration recovers from sending pallets of baby formula to the border as American families are desperately trying to feed newborns and infants.

Therefore, it is no surprise that the White House is frantically seeking someone to take the blame for the Biden baby formula fiasco. On her last day as Press Secretary, Jen Psaki issued this talking point, trying to paint Biden bureaucrats as heroes in this shameful episode:

The White House on Thursday defended the closure of the Abbott plant that resulted in a shortage of baby formula but officials couldn’t say when parents will see more products on the empty grocery store shelves.

‘The reason we’re here is because the FDA took a step to ensure that babies were taking safe formula. There were babies who died from taking this formula so they were doing their jobs,’ White House press secretary Jen Psaki said at her daily press briefing.

Abbott issued a series of tweets that challenged the Biden narrative.

It’s important to note that Abbott was the primary supplier of formula under the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC). Once a the plant in Michigan was closed due to contamination concerns, parents began turning to other brands.

Between the closure and the supply chain issues, it was known as early as February of this year that keeping adequate supplies of formula on the shelves was going to be problematic.

The shortage began late last year, months before Alaya or Alessandra were born. At the time, many formula ingredients were caught in the disrupted supply chain, alongside infant strollers, car seats and cribs.

But the shortage grew more dire in February, after two babies died and two others were hospitalized with Cronobacter infections linked to formula from an Abbott Laboratories plant in Sturgis, Mich.

Abbott makes more than 40% of the baby formula sold in the United States, mostly under the brand Similac. It is also the primary supplier for WIC programs in many states, including Louisiana, Washington and Texas.

But still Biden persisted, claiming nobody could have predicted this crisis.

… Biden on Friday lashed out at critics as he defended his administration’s actions to relieve the infant formula shortage that has panicked parents worried about feeding their babies.

‘If we’d been better mind readers, I guess we could have,’ Biden said when asked if his administration should have acted sooner.

Biden was speaking at an event on community policing and said he would only speak on that topic before – somewhat grumpily – conceding to talk about formula shortages.

‘I’ll answer the baby from the question because all of a sudden it’s on the front page of every newspaper,’ he said.

Biden asserts that the crisis will be over “in a matter of weeks.” This is questionable, but he has to say something given his administration’s incompetence.

Contrary to the Biden admin politicking, manufacturers of baby formula say Americans should expect continuing formula shortages for the rest of the year.

Perrigo Company PLC, which makes store-brand baby formulas for retailers, including Walmart Inc and Amazon.com Inc, expects shortages and heightened demand to last for the “balance of the year,” Chief Executive Murray Kessler told Reuters in an interview.

The Biden administration this week has come under increasing pressure to address a baby formula shortage, which has roots in a February recall of some formulas by one of the nation’s main manufacturers, Abbott Laboratories.

“We have stepped up and are killing ourselves to do everything we can,” Kessler said.

Perrigo’s formula manufacturing facilities in Ohio and Vermont are now running at 115% of capacity, Kessler said.

Going into November with empty shelves and desperate parents isn’t likely to inspire enthusiastic support for the Democratic Party agenda or its candidates.

At this point, I can only pray that fiasco does not result in any infant deaths.

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Comments

The shortage was forced by mal-regulation… a pipeline shutdown, coups without cause, sanctions poorly conceived, a transnational supply chain, cargo cult seance, etc. Biden will have to find another viable point of distraction. Perhaps another leak, misinformation and disinformation brayed, and an empathetic appeal to organize and direct his troupes to occupy a neighborhood, a business, or a city. All in progress amidst a national convention to uphold baby… reproductive rites.

This “crisis” could be swiftly solved as soon as somebody starts thinking outside the canister.

1. There is at least one other manufacturer that has been supplying formula on-line instead of on-the-shelf.

2. There are multiple manufacturers of foodstuffs and supplements that could fill the gap. There is no shortage of milk protein isolate, or soy isolate. These materials are in widespread use for other purposes.

3. Any competent nutritionist should be able to come up with an off-the-shelf formulation from any number of health food or vitamin stores.

    Peabody in reply to Valerie. | May 14, 2022 at 2:55 pm

    “This “crisis” could be swiftly solved as soon as somebody starts thinking outside the canister.

    This “crisis” could be swiftly solved by replacing Biden with a president who has all his marbles.

If there is a shortage of anything in this country priority should be given to taking care of American citizens first before providing anything to Illegal invaders or foreign aid.

Note to Biden: When your priorities are wrong, everything you do will be wrong.

This may be an issue that penetrates into the college educated suburban wine mom demographic. Professional working women need formula and if they can’t get it I don’t think they’re going to give the administration a pass on this one.

I worked for Abbott for 7 years (left end of last year for another opportunity), including doing multiple projects at their Sturgis plant. I can attest first hand that Abbott quality procedures are very stringent and top notch. It is not surprising that they haven’t been able link Abbott formula to the bacteria, as their processes would make that improbable.

IMO, this is right hand now knowing what the left hand is doing. The Feds knew there was a fight BF supply nationwide. Then FDA has their issue with Abbott. In the last year, no doubt, the Biden HHS or DHS has put out large contracts to supply BF to the border as well as for humanitarian aid to UKR, etc. Abbott MI facility staying shut down and no one on the Fed-side realizing they needed to get others to up the production lead to this. Also the crazy FDA with their labeling rules keeping foreign made BF out of the US market. Ineptitude and bureaucratic myopia.

    Peabody in reply to RobM. | May 14, 2022 at 4:58 pm

    “…the Biden HHS or DHS has put out large contracts to supply BF to the border…”

    Yes, but people are wondering, “Why is it essential to provide baby formula to third world mothers who have never even heard of it?”

      Milhouse in reply to Peabody. | May 15, 2022 at 2:08 am

      Because there are mothers who can’t nurse, and also babies who can’t nurse.

      Milhouse in reply to Peabody. | May 15, 2022 at 2:10 am

      Besides which, in what third-world country have people never heard of baby formula? The formula companies did a pretty good job of marketing their product all over the world — some say too good a job.

It’s the neo-communist, Dumb-o-crat way — when Dumb-o-crats’ intrinsically idiotic and ill-conceived socioeconomic policies wreak societal havoc and impose predictably destructive and deleterious consequences upon the proletariat, blame private enterprise for the Dumb-o-crats’ own failures. ‘Twas ever thus.

henrybowman | May 14, 2022 at 3:36 pm

“I have a vivid imagination, but I cannot dream-up any scenario in which the Biden administration recovers from sending pallets of baby formula to the border”

Silly woman. Kamala already EXPLAINED to us how this works.
It’s “the passage of time!”
Never underestimate the importance of the passage of time!

So somebody did something somewhere that killed two babies, and the administration acted swiftly to crush innocent parties and make sure every other baby in the country starved so as to keep them safe. Except, of course, for a small number of “privileged” babies, who got special, secret treatment.

Gee, that’s exactly the same way they handled COVID, and that Jerry Ford handled Swine Flu.

I hope we’re all noticing a pattern here, aren’t we?

And, yes, the notion that illegal aliens are being gifted pallets of baby formula — courtesy of U.S. taxpayers — while those same taxpayers are dealing with a baby formula shortage directly caused by the vile Dumb-o-crats, succinctly encapsulates their “America Last” attitude and ethos.

In matters large and small, the Dumb-o-crats consistently and predictably evince more concern, compassion and deference towards illegal aliens, than they do towards U.S. citizens.

WAIT. TILL. NEXT. FEW MONTHS. (Food shortages)

E Howard Hunt | May 14, 2022 at 4:04 pm

Psaki responded that there is zero doubt that on July 18, 1981 Abbott killed Richard Adan.

stevewhitemd | May 14, 2022 at 4:16 pm

A new mother can always nurse a child. A number of women pump milk and refrigerate it for use later in the day.

When breast feeding can’t be done, a 1:1 dilution of fresh whole milk with clean distilled water, to which one adds an ounce of Karo syrup, will work until formula becomes available.

Formula is really useful, but there are other ways to feed an infant.

    txvet2 in reply to stevewhitemd. | May 14, 2022 at 5:00 pm

    Makes you wonder how anybody survived before they began manufacturing formula.

    ecreegan in reply to stevewhitemd. | May 14, 2022 at 6:06 pm

    “A new mother can always nurse a child.”

    That’s harmful bullshit. MOST mothers can nurse children if they start at the beginning, but there are a substantial number of exceptions. Wealthy women not wanting to nurse weren’t the only reason wet nurses preceded formula.

    And lots of women who can nurse after a day or two can’t nurse when their baby is first born. I couldn’t nurse my older son because I tried too hard before my milk came in, and he suckled so hard on dry breasts he drew blood, and my milk never came in because I had to let them heal.

    Also, a lot of women who can nurse can’t pump.

    If one has to substitute for syrup, goat’s milk and sheep’s milk are better than cow’s milk, and the Karo syrup should be boiled and cooled.

      LibraryGryffon in reply to ecreegan. | May 14, 2022 at 9:57 pm

      It’s been over 20 years, but that story makes me cringe. My younger child was the same way, suckling so hard I was bleeding. Thankfully, we decided to ignore the advice to never let a baby have a pacifier if you wanted to breast feed, (since I was going to have to give up at that point) and as soon as the kid got more suckling in on something that wasn’t me, breastfeeding became doable again.

      Then there was my grandmother who was never able to produce enough milk for any of her three children.

      And what about women who don’t have breasts? Some have had mastectomies due to cancer. Or injuries sustained in accidents or fires. Or breast reductions made to prevent further back and neck damage.

      Yes, the majority of women, with appropriate support can breastfeed. But not all women are in that ideal situation, and even then, many are physically unable to breastfeed.

      Interesting article on this: https://www.thecut.com/2018/05/the-truth-about-not-being-able-to-breastfeed.html#:~:text=I%20read%20maybe%20hundreds%20of,just%20not%20trying%20hard%20enough.

        Uggh the pacifier. The reason my daughter had trouble was during the night after she was born, I allowed the nurse to take her from the room so I could relax and rest. Mistake. When she was brought back to me to eat, she wouldn’t. Then I saw a pacifier in the crib, and I found out someone gave her a bottle. They were short on staff due to an influx of births so staff was pulled from other places. It took a few weeks to get her on track. Anyways, I don’t want to drive people away with stories. 🙂

      Voyager in reply to ecreegan. | May 15, 2022 at 1:26 am

      With ours, we had to give the first one the bottle for the first coupe do days because her mom’s milk didn’t want to come in. It did, and she nursed for the first six months or so, then her mom’s gallbladder decided it was done. Apparently having an organ fail is a very easy way to spontaneously stop producing.

      #2 She had a bad clog on one side that we were never able to clear. She’s got half production so we’re mixing.

      Her cousin got stuck in delivery, so they had to do an emergency c-section. Her mom was loaded to the gills with pain killers and antibiotics. Nursing did not happen there at all.

      People seem to have this idea that infant mortality wasn’t a thing. The grave yards full of little tombstone say otherwise.

    willow in reply to stevewhitemd. | May 14, 2022 at 7:56 pm

    A new mother cannot always nurse a child. I nursed all three of mine. My third had a little trouble so I was told to supplement with formula; she refused it. So a lactation specialist told me to pump and feed her through a syringe, especially the hind milk, where the fat is. I had the advantage of a support system, which is not always the case for women. Women need somewhere to pump at work. At the time I was a young mother, a good nursing pump was over $200. Plus you need bottles and paraphernalia. My family were not fans of nursing, but my husband supported me 100 percent. Older church ladies were terrible; they would lift the blanket up to get a look at the baby! I would never judge a woman who didn’t nurse her baby. There are multiple factors involved. I was able to quit work, and we took a financial hit. When I left my position, a bunch of women told me that they wished they could have stayed home, but their husbands were against it.

      4fun in reply to willow. | May 14, 2022 at 10:07 pm

      When I was a couple years from retirement at GM our “HR” lady became pregnant and had a baby.
      With luck, it seemed our plant had somehow obtained a pump and she took time off work each day to use it. Never heard of any other mother being able to take time off their jobs to pump though.

        willow in reply to 4fun. | May 14, 2022 at 10:50 pm

        I did during lunch time until I stopped working. I was fortunate to have an office and closed the door with a tactful sign. My friend worked as an ICU nurse and pumped in a supply closet when she could squeeze in the time between patients.

    No, a new mother can’t always nurse a child. I know…because I was one for whom that was not an option.

2smartforlibs | May 14, 2022 at 6:16 pm

I have been saying for days to get the planet to reopened and this will help.

Everyone knows that the pedophile-in-chief and Raggedy Ann are nothing but liars. This is just further proof.

This is a crises created by govt. The FDA shut down the facility that makes 40% of formula since February due to fear of contamination from two deaths. Investigation shows zero link from deaths back to the facility. That’s on top of the disrupted supply chain from Covid lockdowns. Also on top of the WIC program single sourcing a supplier.

Abbott says two weeks but that’s to restore operations, the time to shelf is 6-8 weeks. So there’s an ’emergency’; hmmm, how about the FDA issuing guidance for making a homebrew formula and launching web tutorials and classes by County Health office? How about an emergency use authorization for European produced formula?

The FDA is deeply captured by industry. The producers do not want people to buy European formula nor have the govt telling people how to make a safe, effective homebrew formula. Both would cut into profits. Sound familiar to Covid vax?

    randian in reply to CommoChief. | May 15, 2022 at 1:07 am

    Abbott is saying that the FDA inspectors who shut down their plant won’t give them to go-ahead to restart (or just won’t show up to do it, which is the same thing).

      CommoChief in reply to randian. | May 15, 2022 at 10:03 am

      Correct. Two weeks to relaunch production from the day the FDA gets off their ass and grants permission, then 6-8 weeks to hit shelves.

      I’m curious how long the FDA will continue the shut down in the face of significant public backlash.

      Sanddog in reply to randian. | May 15, 2022 at 12:35 pm

      They knew back in April the plant didn’t contaminate the formula. But the FDA really isn’t accountable to anyone. They don’t care if they shut a plant down, cause product backlogs, millions of dollars in expenses and loss of employment. They’re still getting their paychecks.

      It makes you wonder just how much money the lawyers suing Abbott right now donated to the current administration, since the government is doing everything it can to point the finger of blame in the direction of a fat and juicy settlement.

Dotard Biden isn’t merely content to kill babies in the womb — he wants to starve them to death outside the womb, too.

This whole issue is outrageous. Everyone here makes a valid point [except judging women for not nursing.]

We could have California pay for it all….

Los Angeles Times
@latimes
· May 13
Breaking: California’s government surplus is expected to balloon to $97.5-billion by next summer under the budget plan unveiled Friday by Gov. Gavin Newsom.

“No other state in American history has ever experienced a surplus as large as this,” he said.

Maybe if the leftist media, in their zeal to distract from all of Biden’s other disasters, weren’t using this as “fear porn,” people wouldn’t be hoarding for themselves or selling for a huge markup on Ebay.

    CommoChief in reply to Dimsdale. | May 15, 2022 at 10:11 am

    Hoarding? No, that’s called planning ahead. Selling a scarce product for a profit is basic capitalism; buy low sell high. That doesn’t diminish the very real impact of the govt foolishness of shutting down the supplier of 40% of the market. Nor the govt refusal to get of the dime and authorize restart of operations.

    The FDA could be thinking outside the box. They could demonstrate how to make a homebrew replacement with YouTube videos and classes at County heath offices. They could issue emergency approval for importing European formula which are currently banned. That they do nothing is telling.

Victor Immature | May 15, 2022 at 3:38 pm

I remember when the mention of population control caused libs to scream “tin foil hat! tin foil hat!”

It’s a common refrain but…if this had been DJT congress would be buying themselves $1000 pens and marching impeachment papers to a press room.

Not to worry. Bill Gates and his buddies have a laboratory substitute ready. Less stressful for the planet and global warming and all that.