President Joe Biden on Wednesday announced an airlift and the use of the law during the Cold War to try to solve the infant milk shortage in the United States, which has been a political headache for his administration.
The Department of Defense will use its contracts with commercial cargo airlines, as it did in the early months of the COVID pandemic, to deliver products from factories overseas. meets U.S. security standards, the White House said in a statement.
This project, called operation Fly Formula (Flight of powdered milk, in French), will allowaccelerate the import and distribution of infant milkproviding support to manufacturers who continue to increase their productionadded the executive.
Joe Biden also appealed to Defense Production Acta text inherited from the Cold War, to ask producers of ingredients necessary for the production of baby milk to give priority to manufacturers of this valuable commodity for parents of young children.
Ask companies to prioritize and allocate [leurs ressources] producing the basic components of infant milk will facilitate increased production and speed up supply chainsunderline the White House.
Initially caused by problems in both supply chains and labor shortages due to the pandemic, the shortage of infant milk was exacerbated by the February closure of an Abbott manufacturer’s factory in Michigan, following a product recall. which allegedly caused the deaths of two infants.
The United States Medicines Agency (FDA) finished milking the milk, but it took until Monday for Abbott to reach an agreement with American justice to be able to resume production at this factory.
An important product
The very rare shortage of this important product for many parents has been a political crisis for the Democratic president, who has been heavily criticized by the Republican opposition.
Joe Biden, eager to underline his action in the face of this problem that still weighs on his popularity rating less than six months before the mid-term parliamentary elections, also sent a letter on Wednesday to his Ministers of Health and Agriculture.
I ask you to take all possible and appropriate steps to import more baby milkhe writes to them about the operation Fly Formulanoted that his administration’s efforts to resume production after the Michigan plant closure made it possible to produce more baby milk in April than before the recall batch in question.
Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack responded immediately, assuring in a statement that his services would begin immediately to implement the president’s directives to provide infant milk stores as quickly as possible.
Food group Nestlé, which has two factories in the United States for producing baby milk, announced on Tuesday their intention to ship additional quantities of this product on the plane to the United States, from Switzerland and the Netherlands.
According to data provider Datasembly, the stock-out rate of the infant formula reached 43% by the end of last week in the United States.
For many families, formula milk is a necessity, especially in low -income homes where mothers, who are forced to return to work immediately after giving birth, cannot breastfeed. Adding to their concern is the rise in prices.
Their anxiety can be seen on social media, where posts shared hundreds of thousands of times calling on parents to make their own baby milk – which pediatricians warn of the risk of babies getting sick.
Source: Radio-Canada