Thursday, March 28

The US will open an air bridge to import baby milk


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The United States will mount a airlift to import powdered baby milk on commercial aircraft chartered by the armed forces for fill the shortage of this productthe White House announced on Wednesday.

The shortages – the result of supply chain problems and massive product recalls – are driving families to despair and have become a political nightmare for President Joe Biden as November’s midterm elections approach.

The Defense Department “will use his ccontracts with airlines cargo, as it did to move materials during the early months of the Covid pandemic, to transport products from factories in other countries that meet the standards of the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA)»the White House has said.

“The air connection through regular routes it will speed up the importation and distribution of powdered milk and will serve as immediate support while manufacturers continue to increase production”, and efforts are redoubled for the air operation.

Joe Biden also mentioned the Defense Production Act to prioritize supplies to baby product manufacturers.

“Indicate to companies that prioritize and allocate the production of this key product for babies awill help increase production and it will speed up supply chains,” the White House added.

Initially caused by supply blockages and labor shortages, the shortage of powdered milk worsened in February, when after the death of two infants, the manufacturer Abbot announced a “voluntary recall” of its infant formula manufactured at its Michigan facility.

The FDA investigation clarified the formula and reached an agreement with Abbott to resume production, but toIt will take weeks to get this essential product to the warehouses.

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Biden wrote to the heads of the Departments of Agriculture and Health, that the imports of the powdered formula “will serve as a bridge to the acceleration of production.”

“However, I ask you to take all appropriate measures available to have additional quantities of the safe formula in the country immediately,” the president said in his letter.

A need

The shortage has left many parents frantic and fearful that their children will go hungry. powdered milk is a need of many familiesparticularly those with low resources in which mothers must return to work almost immediately after giving birth and they cannot breastfeed.

One more problem is that the prices of the available product have skyrocketed.

The parental despair It is noticeable in social networks where in shared publications, thousands of times they urge parents to make the product at home, something discouraged by experts that ensure that this rudimentary product would not have the necessary nutrients for children and could make them sick.

This already has political consequences with the republican opposition – who has his sights set on regaining control of Congress in the November elections – taking advantage of the issue to attack Biden and the Democrats.

America relies on a 98% of its local milk production baby powder. The rate average of shortage of the product arrived at 43% at the beginning of this month, according to Datasembly, which collected information from more than 11,000 sellers.

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