Abbott Laboratories is fessing up that the baby formula shortage is largely their fault due to a February recall over possible contamination with a deadly bacteria called cronobacter at a Michigan manufacturing facility, announcing that the FDA have given them the green light to expedite quality control and speed up production, WXYZ reports. “We understand the situation is urgent – getting Sturgis up and running will help alleviate this shortage. Subject to FDA approval, we could restart the site within two weeks. We would begin production of EleCare, Alimentum and metabolic formulas first and then begin production of Similac and other formulas. From the time we restart the site, it will take six to eight weeks before product is available on shelves,” Abbott said in a statement, without saying Biden stole all the baby formula like Fox News have been claiming.
Two infants died of cronobacter infection recently, though it has not been definitively established that it was the result of them consuming Abbott’s Similac formula or other brands but the recall was still made as a precautionary measure because of course that’s what they should freaking do.
Now personally I can attest to why Abbott was keeping this quiet. Recently the wife and I stopped in a CVS to grab some stuff and she remembered to check to see if they had this one certain brand of trendy children’s allergy relief marketed toward Caucasians has been completely out of stock at every retailer – both online and bricks and mortar – for months. The guy working there, who deserves a serious promotion given his courteous and helpful nature in contrast to most other hourly drug store chain employees, explained to us that it was almost certainly recalled. He told us recalls of products made for babies and toddlers are far more common than reported publicly, adding he has to pack up different baby medicines all the time to ship them back. The CVS guy said most of the recalls aren’t reported publicly because the manufacturers prefer to keep it as quiet as possible given the risk of reputational damage. Which is shitty to do to people who may have already bought the products (should’ve asked him about that) but hey, that’s capitalism.