More than 70,000lbs of baby formula arrived in the US on Sunday as part of the Biden administration's response to help reduce the nationwide shortage.
US President Joe Biden's government has taken one of several efforts to alleviate the increasingly alarming shortage that's plaguing Americans and has unfortunately led to multiple reports of hospitalized children.
Per the Daily Mail, the first shipment from the US military's Ramstein Air Base in Germany landed in Indiana as part of Biden's Operation Fly Formula program, which was introduced on Wednesday.
The program requires the Department of Health and Human Services and the Department of Agriculture to operate the Defense Department's planes to import international baby formula. It was derived from Zurich, Switzerland, and was transported to Germany, where it was packed on the C-17 and flown to the US.
The president wrote on Twitter before the plane landed: "Folks, I’m excited to tell you that the first flight from Operation Fly Formula is loaded up with more than 70,000 pounds of infant formula and about to land in Indiana."
"Our team is working around the clock to get safe formula to everyone who needs it," Biden added.
Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack declared that the first Operation Fly Formula that arrived on Sunday would provide enough formula for 9,000 babies and 18,000 toddlers in one week.
"It is a large shipment of very specific and specialized formula. [The] formula for moms and dads who have children who have allergies where the regular formula just simply will not work," the secretary announced at a news conference in Indianapolis briefly after the plane landed.
A White House official told CNN that the first imports will be distributed to hospitals, home health care facilities, doctors, and pharmacies in regions "where the needs are most acute."
The US is experiencing a nationwide shortage of infant formula due to potential contamination issues at a central manufacturing plant, as reported by Sky News.
The manufacturer Abbott was held accountable for producing up to 25 percent of the nation’s baby formula. The company had to shut down its Abbott Nutrition plant in Michigan when health officials discovered potentially harmful bacteria on site.
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