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Could the baby formula shortage be a white hat op to clean up the industry?

They ‘Messed Up’: Buttigieg Places Blame for Baby Formula Shortage Squarely on Abbott Laboratories

Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg blamed Abbott Laboratories for the baby formula shortage on Sunday, saying the situation was fundamentally caused “because a company was not able to guarantee that its plant was safe.”

Face the Nation host Margaret Brennan countered that it is “the federal government’s job as regulators to help ensure safety of the plant.”

“As regulators, yes, but let’s be very clear: this is a capitalist country,” Buttigieg replied. “The government does not make baby formula, nor should it. Companies make formula. And one of those companies, a company which, by the way, seems to have 40% market share, messed up and is unable to confirm that a plant — a major plant — is safe and free of contamination.”

Abbott pushed back against the White House’s claim its facility in Sturgis, Michigan plant was contaminated in a Twitter thread on Friday, writing that “a comprehensive investigation by Abbott, FDA and CDC found no evidence that our formulas caused infant illnesses.”

In February, the FDA ordered Abbott to shutdown the plant due to Cronobacter bacteria being found in four infants who consumed formula produced at the plant, two of whom died. The agency’s investigation is still ongoing, according to the Washington Post.

Abbott wrote in the Twitter thread that the only Cronobacter bacteria found was in “non-product contact areas of the facility” and that “genetic sequencing on the two available samples from ill infants did not match strains of Cronobacter in our plant.”

Buttigieg told Brennan that “the most important thing to do right now” is to reopen the Sturgis plant — though the company has warned it will take months to restock store shelves.

“It’s got to be safe and it’s got to be up and running as soon as possible,” Buttigieg said, before crediting the Biden administration for trying to increase other companies’ production of baby formula.

Brennan referenced Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) contracts for baby formula manufacturers, noting that “this isn’t just a private sector problem” because “the federal government is directly involved in some of these arrangements.”

Buttigieg then deflected blame off the government onto Abbott, saying: “A plant shutting down because a company can’t assure that it is physically safe from contamination is the responsibility of the company. The responsibility of the regulator is to ensure, as they take steps to get it ready, that it will in fact be safe when it comes back online.”

https://www.mediaite.com/news/they-messed-up-buttigieg-places-blame-for-baby-formula-shortage-squarely-on-abbott-laboratories