The Food and Drug Administration\u2019s (FDA) response to multiple reports of contamination at a baby formula manufacturing plant was delayed due to a COVID-19 outbreak and numerous logistical failures, the agency\u2019s director told a House panel Wednesday.<\/p>\n
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FDA Commissioner\u00a0Robert Califf<\/strong>\u00a0admitted the agency made a number of missteps that exacerbated a nationwide shortage of baby formula and pledged to reform the agency\u2019s often criticized food safety division.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The FDA\u2019s response was \u201ctoo slow, and some decisions in retrospect could have been more optimal,\u201d Califf said.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Early warnings:\u00a0<\/strong>Califf said FDA first noticed strains in the formula supply chain in March 2020, but were confident the market would be able to handle it.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n “The system seemed to be keeping up with demand until fairly recently, although there were spot shortages that we were responding to,” Califf said.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Lawmakers grilled Califf about the agency\u2019s actions leading up to the subsequent shutdown of Abbott Nutrition\u2019s Sturgis, Mich., manufacturing facility and the recall of the formula that was made there.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n They wanted to know why it took months to inspect the plant, even though agency officials knew about long-standing safety conditions. They also pressed Califf about why the agency did not appear to respond to the shortage until it gained national attention.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n “Babies and children are suffering,” said Rep. Diana DeGette (D-Colo), chairwoman of the Energy and Commerce Oversight subcommittee.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n FDA discovered a variety of safety issues at Abbott\u2019s plant in September but didn\u2019t conduct a follow-up inspection until January.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Cronobacter sakazakii, which can be deadly to infants, was found in four babies who had consumed formula from the plant. Two died. Abbott maintains there is no conclusive evidence linking the contamination at its plant to the illnesses.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The Food and Drug Administration\u2019s (FDA)...<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-48682","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-business","category-health"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48682","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=48682"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48682\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":48683,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48682\/revisions\/48683"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=48682"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=48682"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=48682"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}