Abbott Laba is the country's largest supplier of infant formula products, including Similac, Alimentum and EleCare powdered formulas. By February 4 infants, who were fed formula originating from Abbott's Sturgis plant, had fallen ill: three with Cronobacter sakazakii infections and one with Salmonella newport,. Two of the 4 babies have died. The plant was shut down in February, leading to a national shortage The FDA has found evidence of environmental, but not product contamination. Only samples from 2 babies were available for tests and the babies' infections differed from each other and from the environmental contaminants identified during plant inspections. Abbott notes no link has been established with use of its products; it claims that it routinely tests batches of formula and destroys any defective batches before they get to market. (Clearly, selling contaminated products is not good for future sales, never mind legal action costs and/or penalties against the vendor.) It's difficult to know if product recalls mitigated other potential cases, but I suspect many other babies were fed formula from the same batch(es) without complications. What else could explain the babies' infections? Sources in the home(s)? If there were defective batches, it would seem the problems would have affected more than a handful of babies. Of course, Abbott's recall of relevant batches may have mitigated any problem.
Let me say from the outset I find it difficult to understand how Abbott's own environmental safety procedures didn't control for the contaminants found by the inspectors. Obviously selling tainted products has a negative impact on any ongoing business and affects the company's reputation.
The left's reaction has been predictable: market failure; companies' cutting corners for profits at the expense of the lives of babies, etc. But what of government failure, e.g., in the FDA's negligence of timely inspections? Why the pandemic and insufficient funding, numbers of inspectors, of course! The standard leftist excuses as usual. Let's point out that Abbott, with or without government oversight, remains legally vulnerable for damages if in fact its products contributed to infant illness or death. And note the inspection did not find defective batches.
But our regulatory economy is hardly the "free market". Ryan Young does a good job of explaining it here. Government regulations often reduce market competition (something that has happened over the history of ObamaCare with competitor attrition) It's no accident the US baby formula industry is dominated by 4 vendors. FDA regulations have anti-competitive effects and are embraced, even encouraged by incumbent vendors (this is an example of what we call regulatory capture and crony capitalism). New vendors cannot promote their products on shelves for 90 days. Foreign products are subject to a 17.5% protectionist tariff, effectively pricing them out of the market, a regressive tax on lower/middle income families. Not to mention "good enough" baby formula approved overseas may not be approved by the FDA, and the FDA has been known to block formula shipments over minor labeling compliance issues. Other examples of dysfunctional policies exacerbating the shortage: WIC program restrictions in formula purchases, and vendors whose toddler formula meets infant nutritional requirements are not allowed to market alternative uses.
I was on Twitter recently when singer/actress Bette Midler got slammed by leftist Twitter for suggesting (nutritionally superior) breastfeeding. I saw a sample exchange on CNN where the female host interviewed a female doctor; the basic gist was busybodies like Midler trying to shame mothers into breastfeeding, that this is a hopelessly naive read of why women don't breastfeed. The female doctor agreed using herself as an example, explaining no matter how hard she had tried, night and day, she couldn't produce enough milk to sustain her infant. I don't have the healthcare background background to discuss any issues, say, in resuming breastfeeding. But lactation experts (e.g., here) claim 95% or more mothers can produce enough milk for their babies.
Leftists are engaging in the same old, same old rubbish--screaming about greedy corporations, price-gouging businesses or people, etc., bigger FDA budgets, more inspector staffing, higher WIC benefits and the like. Nothing like the Sen. Lee proposal that would mutually recognize approved baby formulas across our Western economic partners and us, repeal the tariff, and allow WIC participants more flexibility in purchasing formula.
Instead, we have the same political gimmick of lawmakers showing their "concern" by throwing money at the problem, as Dead Fish Emanuel would say, "Never let a good crisis go to waste." But I want to point out a particularly stupid Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.), sponsor of H. R. 7790:
“Parents and caretakers across the country cannot wait — they need our support now,” she said. “While I welcome action from the FDA to address the infant formula shortage, I continue to echo my concerns about safety … we cannot make a false choice between safety and supply.”
DeLauro said any action that’s been taken so far is not enough to ensure that the formula the FDA imports is safe for consumers.
“Instead of purchasing formula from FDA-regulated facilities, the administration is opening the door to any company that self-identifies its formula as ‘safe’. That is unacceptable. Several babies have been hospitalized and at least two have died. We cannot put another child at risk,” DeLauro said.
A few quick points: probably just shy of 4 million US babies are born each year. Likely most of these babies have been fed commercial baby formula for an extended period of time. Up to a handful of infants have been hospitalized. That is tragic, particularly for the parents, but that is a statistically insignificant percentage of babies to be hyping and fear-mongering over. I haven't tracked the frequency of past infant formula issues, but the sources I've seen haven't referenced a pattern of relevant industry issues. Second, DeLauro is ASSUMING infant formulas were responsible for observed infections, But the infections differed across babies and didn't match the environmental contaminants of the FDA inspection, and the FDA had not detected contaminants in product sampling.
But the Congresswoman's distrust of foreign vendor products goes beyond disingenuous crap. I don't know the foreign vendors the FDA are considering (I seem to remember discussion somewhere of Dutch and German suppliers), hut Ms. DeLauro seems to think baby nutritional requirements vary by nationality. She seems to base full faith in FDA-regulated facilities (like Abbott's Michigan plant in question), even though the Sturgis problems weren't detected before alleged defective product. She is treating foreign vendors as fly-by-night scam operators, when in fact they are likely regulated by their own FDA-like agencies. I haven't heard of French, British, or German parents dealing with chronic formula contamination issues. If there were, I strongly suspect we would have read comparison/contrast analyses in the media.
What we need is less government and more free market. We would have more competition with fewer politically motivated government restrictions.
