Out-of-Stock Rates Surge to 70% for Baby Formula

Out-of-Stock Rates Surge to 70% for Baby Formula

The baby formula shortage has not improved despite the recent reverse Berlin Airlift of supplies from Europe.

In fact, it has gotten worse.

For the week ending May 22, the out-of-stock rate for baby formula rose to 70% nationwide, according to recent data by retail data firm Datasembly. It’s a significant increase from the week prior when the national out-of-stock rate for baby formula stood at 45%.

In April, the data showed that the formula shortages hit 30% before jumping to 43% by early May, underscoring how the situation is growing worse before it gets better.

Abbott Nutrition’s Sturgis, Michigan, facility, which exacerbated the industry-wide shortage, is expected to restart production June 4, meaning products from the plant won’t return to store shelves until at least mid-July, according to the company’s production timeline.

In fact, “experts” are calling the recent airlift exactly what it was . . . . political theater.

The symbolic gesture, part of “Operation Fly Formula” — the program President Biden launched last week to expedite shipments of formula to mitigate the national shortage — may be more of a sign than a solution, said Peter Pitts, a former associate commissioner at the Food and Drug Administration.

“On the one hand, it’s political theater because the president wants to be seen to be doing something — and so I appreciate that — [but] its actual impact is limited,” said Pitts.

…Pitts, who is now president of the Center for Medicine in the Public Interest, also said the specific, hypoallergenic type of formula delivered in the first and second shipment – though important – will do little to mitigate the limited supply availability across the board.

“I think if the president had said, you know, this is not the solution to the problem, but it’s something we can do right now for those infants most at risk, I think that would have been [better] than a grand announcement that’s going to have significant but limited impact for the majority of American parents,” he said.

Legal Insurrection may recall my post about FDA Chief Robert Califf, who recently asserted that “misinformation” was a leading cause of death in the U.S. He was grilled in front of a congressional panel to explain all the poor choices made by his agency that led to the crisis.

He was forced to admit the FDA was too slow to respond.

Rep. Morgan Griffith, R-Va., the ranking member on the committee, questioned why it took the FDA more than three months to address this shortage. Why didn’t the FDA “move heaven and earth” to address this, he asked.

FDA’s timeliness in interviewing a whistleblower and getting into the Abbott facility for inspections were “too slow,” Califf said. “Some decisions in retrospect could have been more optimal.”

To many questions from lawmakers on the agency’s work flow and timeliness, Califf simply said, “We don’t have a great answer.”

Perhaps if the agency weren’t so busy trying to control American thought, rather than supporting the production of healthy and safe food and drugs, then this crisis would not have occurred.

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