Once again, parents around the country have a reason to be frustrated with President Joe Biden. This time, it is because of something First Lady Jill Biden said regarding the ongoing baby formula crisis. Dr. Jill Biden simply appealed to the parents of America to wait for supplies to come from abroad.
The First Lady joined with United States Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy this week and accepted the frustration from parents due to the two-month shortage of baby formula. She declared that her husband and his team were “working around the clock” on this problem. And she also offered that parents could talk to their pediatrician to discuss a possible alternative to infant formula.
Dr. Jill Biden said, “Becoming a mom or dad means falling in love deeper than you ever thought possible. And in those first few months of sleepless nights of endless diapers and dirty dishes and worrying about every little danger, your love can feel like the only thing that keeps you going.”
She continued with what seemed like heartfelt emotion, “And I know you are worried about how you are going to feed your baby. The president sees you, he hears you, and his team is working around the clock to get you what you need.”
But for many parents, hearing the First Lady offer her advice was too little and too late. This message came just a few days after regulators in the United States came up with a deal with Abbott, a company in Michigan, to restart their shut down company.
Abbott confessed that it would take them approximately ten weeks before they could begin producing new products on the shelves of stores. And the shortage really started in February due to a nationwide recall of formula. This action was multiplied due to a worsening global supply chain crisis.
Donna Evans wrote this on Twitter to the First Lady, “Dr Biden, I am a grandmother with hungry grandbabies. Please know the moms/dads/grandparents may appreciate your kind words of empathy but what we ask is that you help us!!!! Please be informed before these issues that impact us become a crisis, please be more involved.”
Another Twitter user focused on the fact that Dr. Biden asked a hungry baby to just “hang on” while we wait for another country to produce the formula. And another message touted that the First Lady shared “ZERO” about help for the shortage of formula babies “can not go without.”
Abbott is one of just four companies in America that produce approximately 90 percent of all baby formula in the United States. It was forced to close the doors of its Michigan plant because of safety concerns by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The government could have predicted how significant this move would be regarding the amount of product that grocery stores would lose.
Now that it is a full-blown crisis, members of Congress introduced two bills this week to aid with the shortage. And the FDA is scrambling to find a baby formula that meets its standards from other nations. Now, one really knows how long this process is going to take to fully deal with the crisis.
The Surgeon General had some things for parents as well. He told parents to not be afraid to switch from the brands that they were used to, and he assured them that all the formulas that would be on shelves in America would be safe. He said it will meet the “gold standard” of the FDA. He also stressed the importance of not watering down formula or making your own at home. He said those were not safe decisions and that parents should take a look at HHS.gov/formula for more information.
So as long as everyone with hungry babies can “hang on,” we all should be OK.
