Bombshell: The 'Root Cause' of the Baby Formula Shortage
Plus: Bill Gates Sings!
Back on May 11 - we pointed our magnifying glass on America’s largest baby formula plant located in Michigan, and found out why the baby formula shortage began - the Michigan baby formula plant had been shut down by the FDA.
The plant was closed for three months. Remember this tweet?
There was an explanation why the FDA shut down the plant: the federal agency said it found safety violations, along with strains of a bacteria that causes meningitis.
Okay, fine. Not sure why it took three months to clean up the factory, but whatever.
What needs to be looked at here is how the largest baby formula factory fell apart and become such an unhealthy place in the first place.
It turns out the lockdowns of two years ago are to blame.
From The Western Journal: “You remember during the lockdowns two years ago when only essential workers – like those at casinos and liquor stores – were allowed to go to work?
Among those who stayed home were Food and Drug Administration food plant inspectors.
As a result, that critical Abbot Nutrition baby formula plant in Michigan shut down in February for bacterial contamination and had no thorough FDA inspection for two years, the Associated Press reports.
Worse, some pandemic-driven staff shortages meant officials missed 15,000 U.S. food plant inspections.
As nurses, doctors and utility, retail and transportation workers risked COVID in attempting to keep us healthy, warm and fed, shouldn’t food inspectors have been on the job?
Baby formula plant workers were considered essential. Inspectors of their plants were not.
No wonder that after the lull in inspections, regulators found problems at the Abbot plant – sloppy sanitation procedures and standing water. But they only made suggestions about remedies; they did not even issue a formal warning.
Let’s try to sort out this mess…
First, the U.S. government forces most of the economy to shut down - only allowing “essential workers” to continue working - like liquor stores and fast food drive-thrus.
They allowed the baby formula production to continue operating but shut down the FDA inspections.
Then, when the baby formula factory deteriorates, the FDA shuts down the factory. For three months. If not for the media scrutiny, who knows how long that factory would have sat there doing nothing.
What a mess.
“Timely inspections during the pandemic might have headed off the Abbott plant shutdown, according to Sarah Sorscher, who specializes in food safety at the Center for Science in the Public Interest.
She recognized there was a tradeoff for the FDA. “Certainly there was a price to pay for protecting their workers during that time,” she said.
No mention of the food production plant workers who soldiered on during the pandemic, even as there were reports of some getting COVID.
While babies went hungry, the FDA made sure there was no shortage of vaccine products. And some see a bias at the FDA toward drugs and medicine compared to food.”
~ Bill Gates Parody Song
Let’s turn the page of today’s issue to the cartoon section. We all need to laugh more. Chuckling is good for the soul.
Here is a clever parody of The Rainbow Connection - sung by Bill Gates! (I thought the video was amusing and well done together with the song.)
Enjoy!
I don't know if this is true, but I've read that no bacteria has been found at the Abbott plant that has been linked to any sick children. None. So, why are they not back up and running? I think we know the REAL reason why.