Biden Not Alerted to Baby Formula Shortage Until April

[applegrove]

Biden Not Alerted to Baby Formula Shortage Until April

June 1, 2022 at 5:32 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard 13 Comments

https://politicalwire.com/2022/06/01/biden-not-alerted-to-baby-formula-shortage-until-april/

"SNIP.......

“President Joe Biden said Wednesday he wasn’t alerted that the nation faced a looming shortage of baby formula until April, even though executives of baby formula manufacturers said they sounded the alarm to retailers two months earlier,” USA Today reports.

......SNIP"

[ruet]

1. Huh?

Not a good look.


Here's what is being done to address a baby formula shortage

MEMPHIS, Tenn. — Baby formula is getting harder to find for many parents.

Slowly over the last couple of months, supply has dwindled. The Infant Nutrition Council of America says supply chain shortages is to blame.

Experts said before the pandemic, major formula brands were in stock about 95% of the time. But for some companies, that dropped to as low as 75%.

Powdered formula is the one many can't find. Major retailers like Walgreens, Amazon, CVS, and Target said they're working with suppliers to cover customer demand.

The Infant Nutrition Council of America wrote in a statement on its website: “Members of the Infant Nutrition Council of America want to reassure parents and caregivers that there is infant formula available to meet their needs. Manufacturers have increased production and are working with retailers and government agencies to help ensure availability and continued access to infant formula.

Baby formula shortage has some families scrambling

Retailers nationwide have struggled to keep shelves fully stocked with all kinds of everyday necessities as supply chain problems persist, slowing down both production and distribution of goods. At the same time, consumer demand remains robust.

According to market research firm IRI, stores’ infant formula inventories in mid-January were down 17% from where they were in mid-February 2020, just before the pandemic hit US shores.

In many small towns and rural communities, convenience stores are a vital lifeline for everyday needs.
Even your backup grocery store is struggling to stay fully stocked
Drugstore chain Walgreens, which had alerted its customers about isolated formula shortages at its stores nationwide in November, said it is still facing tight inventory.

“We continue to see greater demand for baby formula nationwide, and as a result Walgreens has worked diligently with our suppliers to ensure we have enough supply to cover customer demand,” the company said in a statement to CNN Business. The retailer said shoppers could continue to see temporary or isolated shortages of specific formula products.

'Near impossible to find': Parents scramble to find baby formula amid shortage, recall

According to market research firm IRI, stores' infant formula inventories in mid-January were down 17% from where they were in mid-February, just before the pandemic hit the U.S.

[dalton99a]

3. +1.

[WhiskeyGrinder]

2. Lol what the actual fuck.

[elleng]

4. White House communications problems?

[ruet]

5. Which Part?

Biden not knowing about it organically? Staff not briefing him about it? Saying either out loud?

[elleng]

6. Staff not briefing him about it.

[ruet]

7. It Was A Rhetorical Question.

None of the answers are good.

[elleng]

9. AND from minute 4:

https://www.democraticunderground.com/1017739521

Government created market failure.

[ruet]

11. I Had No Idea.

Sounds like something that would be illegal had it been done, strictly, in the private sector.

Thanks for the time stamp. I can't stand listening to Seder and company prattle on for minutes before they get to the point.

[elleng]

12. Nor did I have an idea, and yes, WOULD be illegal if 'strictly in private sector.'

[BlackSkimmer]

17. Surely he reads the news?

I remember pics of previous presidents surrounded by the morning newspapers.

He must have a computer?

[elleng]

19. One would think.

[drray23]

20. I doubt he has time to surf websites

He has staff that will read articles and monitor the media to bring topics they deem important to him.
When an issue lands on the desk of the president it's because it could not be dealt with at lower levels.

[BlackSkimmer]

22. Well, wouldn't you, if you were prez?

I surf some sites in the morning with my coffee.

Barely two cups before I have to begin my dog walking day. The site surfing takes barely 30 minutes, if that.

Recently adopted a very young hound, so she's not up to walking with my others yet. So the older ones go first. then I come back and get the hound. Two hours of my day is spent doing that walking. Before my day even really begins.

But I can still catch headlines in moments. Again, presidents of days past read the newspapers, and that took a lot longer to do than surf a site.

Obviously, this was an issue that was NOT dealt with at a lower level.

[nolabear]

8. Who's responsible for keeping him briefed?

I mean specifically. It’s an awful look. It fuels all kinds of harebrained theories.

[Rebl2]

16. Yep

I thought I started hearing about it in February. Biden can’t know all things all the time. That’s why they have briefings. I blame those who should have been briefing him on this.

[gratuitous]

10. Wait . . . are you telling me

Are you telling me that President Biden doesn't sit in the Oval Office 24-7 monitoring the nation's supply of consumer goods, and springs into action if there's not enough pablum in Poughkeepsie? GTFO!

Really don't see why the Biden administration is being held responsible for this failure of the free market, brought to life by Republican policies. I understand that fully 40% of the nation's baby formula came out of that Abbott Laboratories plant. And every other plant was working at or near capacity, so when Abbott shut down for an extended period of time, there wasn't any excess capacity available to pick up Abbott's very large share of the market.

Why is every plant working at or near capacity? Could it be anything as uninteresting as good old-fashioned greed? Maximum production with minimum staffing means that other plants couldn't ramp up production to make up for Abbott's missing share because production was already ramped as high as it could go.

But it's all President Biden's fault that baby formula manufacturers were following the Republican free market plan when Abbott went down.

[XanaDUer2]

13. Good points nt

[ruet]

14. That Short Snippet Says Nothing About Responsibility.

It's about him saying he didn't know about it until April. It's a dubious claim.

[TheProle]

18. The FDA knew

and were responsible for providing that information to the administration.

[betsuni]

21. +1

[Lovie777]

15. That Pres Biden told the truth .. . .

and is working on it.