Transcript
Isaac Saul (0:00)
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Isaac Saul (1:34)
From executive producer Isaac Saul. This is Tangle.
Ari Weitzman (1:49)
Good morning, good afternoon and good evening and welcome to the Tangle Podcast, a place where you get views from across the political spectrum spectrum, some independent thinking and a little bit of our take. I'm your host Today Senior Editor Will Kbach, and in today's Friday edition, we're going to be winding back the clock to 2022 and taking a look at a story that has fallen out of the news cycle but remains particularly relevant to some of the major issues of today, and that is the infant formula shortage that took place for about six months in 2022 during the pandemic. We're going to look at what happened, the causes of the shortage, how we got out of it, and some of the lessons that we should take. And we're also going to talk a little bit about how the media's coverage of that incident influenced the way we think about the news and consume the news it's part of a series that we're considering making a reoccurring project at Tangle, so we'd love to hear what you think about this coverage style. We'll talk more about the framing of this piece as we get into it. So for now, let's get started. Foreign Sometimes consuming the news can feel like trying to carry all the bags from a big grocery run into the house in a single trip. You've got to balance uneven weights in uneven ways while trying to do a normal task like opening your front door. And as the news increasingly moves to digital platforms, it can sometimes feel like we're carrying that weight every hour of every day. Every once in a while, on our seemingly endless grocery run, we'll drop something. Case in point. Do you remember the baby formula shortage? In truth, we forgot about it too. Our news cycles are filled with stories that seem to disappear just as soon as they arrive. Stories that feel like they'll have a major impact on our country or planet, but then kind of fade away stories. Of course, that's not to say these stories are unimportant. While they may not have become historic events, year defining events, decade defining events, they still offer important lessons that we should take heed of in the present. At Tangle, we've recently been reflecting on our coverage from the past five years, identifying stories that we covered once or twice thought could potentially reshape our lives and then didn't. And we're asking what happened to that story? So today we're trying to figure out how one story in particular has panned out. The baby formula shortage, as we'll get into below, the story combined pandemic era challenges with existing supply chain issues and a little bit of bad luck, raising fears that millions of infants across the US Were facing a nutritional crisis. But did those concerns actually come to bear? And are the underlying issues of the shortage actually resolved? If you like this piece and the idea of revisiting other stories from recent years, write in, send us a note, let us know. And we'd also like to hear the topics that you'd be interested in having us cover in the future. Like I said at the beginning, we're considering making this a recurring series and we'd love to have you help shape it. Let's rewind to 2022. At the height of the formula shortage in May, news outlets framed the story as a major crisis with the potential to impact millions of families. Here are some headlines from that time period. The Atlantic described a, quote, full blown national crisis, as did the New York Times. The Wall Street Journal suggested the shortage could, quote, leave parents scrambling for months. NPR called it, quote, a major stressor for parents. Fox Business said the shortage was reaching a, quote, crisis level and sparking panic. The Associated Press wrote about parents hunting for baby formula. As the shortage spans the United States, CNN said the problem is getting worse. So how did we get here? In February 2022, the Food and Drug Administration the FDA issued a recall of powdered infant formula produced by Abbott Nutrition at its Sturgis, Michigan facility after reports of product contamination linked to Cronobacter sakazaki bacteria. Four infants became sick after consuming formula produced at the factory, and two died from their illnesses. Now, Abbott maintained that the illnesses and the deaths were not due to contaminated formula, citing bacteria samples collected from the infants that did not match those found in the company's factory. However, the FDA said its investigation did not absolve Abbott, noting that the bacterial samples from the factory did not need to be an exact genetic match with those drawn from the infants to indicate that it was the source of the infection. Now, Abbott is one of three major formula manufacturers in the United States, producing about 40% of all formula sold domestically, primarily under the brand name Similac, and the Sturgis plant is the largest of its facilities. Abbott shut down the plant in early 2022 after the FDA's recall order, grinding all production at that facility to a halt. The shutdown exacerbated existing baby formula shortages linked to the COVID 19 pandemic, during which hoarding, labor shortages and supply chain issues impacted availability. In April 2022, Target, Walmart, CVS and Walgreens began limiting how much infant and toddler formula customers could purchase per visit. Later that month, 40% of the top selling baby formula products were out of stock, and in May, the Washington Post reported that the out of stock rate for infant formula was over 50% in eight states and ranged from 30 to 40% in several others. Families who relied on the government's Special Supplemental Nutritional Program for Women, Infants and Children, also known as WIC, which supplies formula to roughly 40% of all American babies, faced additional challenges due to the program's restrictions on which brands of formula it supplements, though the government did waive some restrictions during the shortage. As the situation worsened, President Joe Biden invoked the Defense Production act to allow formula manufacturers priority access to materials used to make infant formula. Biden also directed several federal agencies to partner to transport formula shipments from foreign suppliers to the U.S. now, Abbott resumed operations at its Sturgis plant in June after reaching an agreement on safety standards with the fda, while flooding from severe storms temporarily delayed production shortly after the plant was reopened, it was fully operational by August. By October 2022, the crisis had somewhat subsided, with some 18% of powdered formula out of stock during the first week of the month, compared to 31% in July. While those stock rates were still higher than the historical averages, the acute nature of the shortage had largely abated by the end of the year. So below we're going to share a snapshot of the reactions from commentators and experts during the peak of the shortage, including some original interviews from those involved. We'll also dive into how the issue was resolved, the story that the News may not have followed up on at the time, and finally, we're going to unpack what lessons we can take from the story of the shortage. Foreign.