White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said on May 22 that there’s no definitive timeline as to when parents in the United States “will be able to readily” obtain baby formula.
“The president understands the struggle of moms and dads and parents and caregivers, and making sure that ... a child has ... a healthy way of eating,” Jean-Pierre told
reporters on Air Force One en route to Tokyo.
“A healthy formula ... safe formula ... is our number one priority ... which is why we have been very, very acutely aware of ... the process that we’ve initiated with the flyover and also the DPA [Defense Production Act].”
President Joe Biden, who is currently in Japan after visiting South Korea,
invoked the DPA on May 18 to accelerate domestic production of baby formula, in the face of a nationwide shortage.
A day later, the
White House announced an operation titled Operation Fly Formula, to transport the equivalent of up to 1.5 million eight-ounce bottles of Nestle baby formula from Switzerland to Indiana, via commercial air cargo with contracts with the Pentagon.
“I don’t have a timeline for you yet,” Jean-Pierre said. “We want to ... make sure it goes very quickly because it’s so critical. And we know … what families are going through. ... But I don’t have an exact timeline. ... Clearly, we want this to happen as fast as possible, as quickly as possible.”
A U.S. military cargo plane carrying 35 tons of baby formula
arrived in Indianapolis on May 22. The formula, made in Nestle’s plant in Zurich, would be enough to feed 9,000 babies and 18,000 toddlers for a week.
Jean-Pierre said the shipment from Zurich would be “enough for over half a million bottles.”
“This formula was manufactured in an FDA-approved facility and will be inspected on arrival like all food imports,” she said. “We prioritize this for the first shipment because this formula type serves a critical medical purpose and is in short supply in the United States as the result of the Abbott Sturgis plant closure.”
Supply chain disruptions and a
February recall by Abbott Nutrition have led to the current nationwide shortage of infant formula.
According to Datasembly, the United States’ out-of-stock rate for baby formula was relatively stable, ranging between 2 and 8 percent, in the first half of last year. The rate stood at 43 percent for the week ending May 8.
