Baby Formula Shortage of 2022

This topsy-turvy country (and world) has gotten even more insane.

Now it's an infant formula shortage.

I personally know of two people (one is a relative) who have infants. Thankfully, one has a mother who bought two cartons of it months ago (they are probably used up by now).

She told me:

I bought them two cartons of formula a few months ago when she thought I was nuts and being a crazy prepper since no way they wouldn’t have formula.  Of course she also had no idea formula might be needed.  Two boxes of it was $216 plus tax.  And now you can’t even get it even if you could afford it.

How did this all come about?

According to an article in Fortune, there's a lot of factors involved. Two main culprits are the monopoly of the baby formula industry by three companies and the FDA (run by the Biden Administration, naturally). (I had a feeling that Biden was somehow involved.)

They wrote:

A baby formula shortage gripping the U.S. since March has parents in a panic over where and when they’ll be able to find the products they need to feed their kids.

The out-of-stock rate, representing the amount of formula that’s not in stock compared to what’s typically available, was 43% for the week ending May 8, according to Datasembly, a provider of real-time product data for retailers and consumer packaged goods (CPG) brands. 

With no easy end in sight, caregivers nationwide have been forced to devote their free time to driving between stores in search of formula, prompting retailers to limit the number of cans customers can buy. Others have turned to Facebook groups and informal support networks to acquire the nutritional products that work best for their kids. 

“I've looked online, I have my mom in Boston looking, my mother-in-law in Florida looking,” Elyssa Schmier previously told Fortune about her trouble finding formula for her 8-month-old son. “Everyone we know is looking for us and no one can find it.”

How did a baby formula crisis spring up in one of the world’s richest countries? Experts say a recall by one of the industry’s largest manufacturers, persistent supply-chain issues, and a market dominated by only a few players have combined to form what one consumer goods expert calls a “perfect storm” affecting the supply of essential formula to millions of babies across the U.S. And the shortage could last for months. 

Many are digging up old recipes for homemade formula and making their own along with using the old stand-by: moo juice. So-called pediatricians of today are opposed to DIY formulas of yesteryear. They seem to forget that us baby boomers survived it just fine.

To read more, go here.

FDA Approves 2nd Booster

This shouldn't be much of a surprise to those of us who have been paying attention. The Food and Drug Administration has authorized a second COVID-19 booster.

I had the first booster in October. I am not sure if I am getting a second one. I'll have to mull it over.

According to the Gateway Pundit:

The Food and Drug Administration announced on Tuesday that it authorized another Covid-19 booster shot of the Pfizer and Moderna Covid-19 vaccines for people 50 and older and certain immunocompromised individuals.

That means four doses of the mRNA vaccine within a 2-year span. Is this the beginning of annual Covid shots?

To read more, go here.

Foreign Citizens Seek US-Approved Vaccines As Travel Resumes

Above, Asia Lipovetckaia and Armand at the 2016 portrait unveiling party at the Odyssey Restaurant. Photo by Lori Thornhill.

As the U.S. is opening up to foreign travelers, many of them are in a quandary. The vaccine they received, such as Sputnik V, is not recognized by the Food and Drug Administration. In order to be allowed in, they must be vaccinated with FDA-approved vaccines.

KRQE reported:

Starting Monday, the United States plans to reopen to foreign travelers who are fully vaccinated against the coronavirus. But there’s a catch: non-immigrant adults need to have received vaccines authorized by the Food and Drug Administration or which received an emergency use listing from the World Health Organization.

That leaves many hopeful travelers across the globe who taken full courses of vaccines widely used in other parts of the world — Sputnik V and the China-produced CanSino jab, in particular — scrambling to get reinoculated with shots approved by U.S. authorities.

Two other Chinese vaccines, Sinopharm and Sinovac, have been approved by the WHO and will thus be accepted for travel into the U.S.

While Sputnik V is used in around 70 countries worldwide, it has still not been approved by either the FDA or the U.N. health agency. Nearly 1 million people have received the vaccine in Hungary, a Central European country of around 10 million.

Hungary was one of only two countries in the 27-member European Union to roll out the Russian vaccine. Fewer than 20,000 people received it in Slovakia.

Citizens of Russia, where use of Sputnik V is most widespread, also are seeking Western-approved shots so they can travel abroad. Faced with the prospect of being turned away from flights, Russians have booked tours to Serbia, which has authorized use of the Pfizer-BioNTech, China’s Sinopharm and the AstraZeneca vaccines in addition to Sputnik V.

Russia, which unveiled Sputnik V with much fanfare as the world’s first registered vaccine in August 2020, criticized U.S. plans to leave the vaccine off its list of approved shots.

Artist Asia Lipovetckaia of St. Petersburg, Russia was planning to come to New Mexico for a 2-3 week visit, but the pandemic hit and those plans had to be scrubbed. She can come to the U.S. if she gets vaccinated by a FDA or WHO-approved vaccine. She could go to Serbia to get it as the above article stated. To date, she has not been vaccinated.

To read the full article, go here.

Russia's Sputnik V Vaccine Excluded

Above, Asya and I having lunch in Santa Monica a week before my move to New Mexico.

Before the pandemic started, Asya and I were talking about a visit by her to New Mexico for a couple of weeks or so. She resides in St. Petersburg, Russia. The pandemic put a pause on that. She was stuck in Denmark for a few months when the pandemic hit and travel restrictions were enacted.

As everyone is aware, the pandemic has hit every country. 

Russia claims to have developed the first vaccine for COVID-19, called Sputnik V. 

According to the Moscow Times:

Russia has confirmed 7,464,708 cases of coronavirus and 205,531 deaths, according to the national coronavirus information center. Russia’s total excess fatality count since the start of the coronavirus pandemic is around 596,000.

On the number of Russians vaccinated, ABC News reported:

Vaccination rates have remained low, too, with only 32% of the country’s 146 million population having received at least one shot of a vaccine and only 28% fully vaccinated.

Unfortunately, the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Food and Drug Administration does not recognize Sputnik V vaccine, which will cause some problems when new rules are announced in November on foreign visitors to the U.S. In 2019, over 300,000 Russians visited the U.S.

Axios reported:

New rules allowing fully vaccinated international travelers to enter the U.S. beginning in November will exclude those vaccinated by Russia's Sputnik V vaccine, the Washington Post reports.

Why it matters: Sputnik V's exclusion will mean millions of fully vaccinated individuals won't be eligible to travel to the U.S., per the Post.

• It will also have a wider international impact, as Russia has plans to distribute its vaccine to around 70 countries.  

State of play: According to the new rules, non-citizens entering the country must be inoculated with vaccines approved for emergency use by either the Food and Drug Administration or the World Health Organization, per the Post.

• These include the Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna and Johnson & Johnson vaccines used widely in the U.S., as well as the AstraZeneca vaccine. It also includes the Sinopharm and Sinovac vaccines developed by China.

WHO has paused its review process of the Sputnik V vaccine over concerns about its manufacturing process, according to the Washington Post.

It will be interesting to see how things shake out once the new rules are announced.

FDA Grants Pfizer COVID-19 Vaccine Full Approval

To those who would not get covid vaccine until FDA approved, now is your chance (Pfizer is FDA approved as of today.) If I were you, I would sign up today for an appointment and ‘beat the rush.’ - Greta Van Susteren.

Seven months after I received the Pfizer vaccine (two separate shots), the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) granted their full approval of the Pfizer vaccine.

According to Fox Business:

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on Monday granted full approval to Pfizer's COVID-19 vaccine for individuals 16 years and older.

"The FDA’s approval of this vaccine is a milestone as we continue to battle the COVID-19 pandemic," Acting FDA Commissioner Janet Woodcock said in a statement issued Monday. "While this and other vaccines have met the FDA’s rigorous, scientific standards for emergency use authorization, as the first FDA-approved COVID-19 vaccine, the public can be very confident that this vaccine meets the high standards for safety, effectiveness, and manufacturing quality the FDA requires of an approved product."

COVID-19 vaccines developed by Pfizer, Moderna and Johnson & Johnson have all previously been granted emergency use authorization (EUA) after meeting the FDA's safety and efficacy requirements. The full licensure announced Monday stems from a so-called biologics license application, building on previously-submitted pre-clinical and clinical data, information relating to the manufacturing process, vaccine quality data and site inspections.

To read more, go here. 

FDA Warns of Cancer Risk With Breast Implants

Source: Food and Drug Administration

Another good reason why one shouldn't alter with what God gave them has cropped up bigtime in the news this past week.

Valley News Live reported:

SILVER SPRING, M.D. (NBC) - Breast implants can cause a rare form of cancer that may have killed at least nine people, the Food and Drug Administration said. 

The cancer is called anaplastic large cell lymphoma (ALCL) and the FDA is checking into more than 350 reports linking it with both silicone and saline breast implants.

Upon hearing this news, I almost considered sending this article to "someone that I used to know" who had breast implants put in last year.

But, as my "honorary sister" said:

No contact is the best from here on out.  She probably will hear about it later anyway. Whether it is that or something else, karma has a way of evening out things in the universe.

As I said, almost. I don't want to be "catty" either (I wouldn't have, anyway). As my dad died from another form of lymphoma, I know how bad that kind of cancer is. I wouldn't wish it on anyone.

To read more, go here.