Baby Formula Shortage 2022

Overview

Baby Formula Shortage 2022 refers to the lack of powdered baby formula in the U.S., evident in pharmacies in May 2022 under Joe Biden's presidency and during the Roe v. Wade Supreme Court document leak. The crisis was linked to the recall and FDA investigation of baby formula companies, ones that controlled 89 percent of the industry, the primary one being Abbott Nutrition and their Sturgis, Michigan facility. The event inspired baby formula memes and discussions across Twitter and Reddit related to politics, the economy and breastfeeding. In May 2022, the discussion surrounding the baby formula shortage picked up after Joe Rogan discussed it on his podcast and the controversy grew online.

Background

On February 17th, 2022, America's leading powdered baby formula company, Abbott Nutrition, was investigated by the FDA regarding consumer complaints of Cronobacter sakazakii and Salmonella infections in their infants after using their products.^[1] This supposedly resulted in the death of four infants nationwide. Abbott Nutrition was forced to do an initial recall of their baby formula products on February 17th and an investigation by the FDA was underway at the company's Sturgis, Michigan facility.^[1] The official Twitter account of the FDA posted a tweet^[2] on February 17th about the story that earned over 370 likes in three months (shown below).

Developments

On February 26th, 2022, the U.S. Senate expressed concern regarding the baby formula recall.^[3] Senators Patty Murray (D-Wash.) and Bob Casey (D-Pa.) demanded Abbott Nutrition hand over information and documents related to the company’s baby formula recall, concerned about contaminated products reaching American infants. Overall, the company had recalled three out of four of its baby formulas.

On March 23rd, 2022, the FDA revealed more information about what they found in its investigation.^[4] According to them, Abbott didn’t maintain clean surfaces when producing and handling the powdered formula, additionally, inspectors found a history of contamination with the bacteria, known as cronobacter, including eight instances between fall 2019 and February 2022.

Going into April 2022, Americans started to see the effects of the recall and shortage on their pharmacy shelves. For instance, on April 30th, Twitter^[5] user TexasChance posted an image of a sparse baby formula selection in his drug store, captioning it, "Locked up baby formula. This is shameful. I live in the ‘burbs. This is blue city bullshit. More cops. Higher wall. Red wave," earning over 250 likes in two weeks (shown below). The tweet related the shortage to a belief that the shortage was due to the Democrat's negligence.

Going into May 2022, the event started to receive more mainstream attention after CNN^[6] revealed on April 29th that it was a whistleblower at Abbott Nutrition who unveiled the health hazards to the FDA.

Joe Rogan Baby Formula Shortage

On May 12th, 2022, Joe Rogan discussed the baby formula shortage on his podcast with guest Hotep Jesus. The clip of the discussion was uploaded to YouTube on May 12th, wherein less than a day, it received over 552,000 views (shown below).

Coinciding with the attention from Joe Rogan, many Twitter users and Redditors began posting about the baby formula shortage, some being serious while others being humorous. For instance, on May 12th, 2022, conservative writer Ann Coulter posted a tweet^[7] reading, "Until this baby formula crisis is resolved, I sure hope lactating men everywhere will step up to the plate," earning roughly 35,600 likes in less than 24 hours (shown below, left). Also on May 12th, Redditor Alone-Suit-108 posted a meme to /r/TheRightCantMeme^[8] that compared socialism and capitalism in relation to the shortage, earning roughly 10,500 upvotes in less than a day (shown below, right).

The shortage quickly became a vehicle for figures on the conservative right to point blame at Joe Biden's presidency. Conservative figures like Marjorie Taylor Greene, ^[9] Josh Hawley^[10] and many others posted tweets in this vein on May 12th. However, the shortage was said to be linked to the over-arching domination of the baby formula industry, monopolized by four companies that controlled 89 percent of it. This was according to former United States Secretary of Labor Robert Reich (D) who posted a tweet^[11] on May 12th stating this. It earned roughly 5,800 likes in less than a day (shown below). He still admitted though, that the government needed to issue a "tougher antitrust enforcement" going forward.

Search Interest

External References