(Bloomberg) -- President Joe Biden said he expects increased imports of baby formula to relieve a US shortage “in a matter of weeks or less.”
“I think we’re going to be, in a matter of weeks or less, getting significantly more formula on shelves,” Biden told reporters at the White House on Friday.
He defended his administration’s response to the shortage, exacerbated in February after Abbott Laboratories recalled several brands of formula linked to rare bacterial infections in four children.
“If we’d been better mind-readers, I guess we could have,” he said in response to a question about why his administration didn’t act faster. “But we moved as quickly as the problem became apparent to us. And we have to move with caution as well as speed.”
The shortage has emerged as another political headwind for Biden and his party as they seek to retain control of Congress in November’s midterm elections. Republicans and some Democrats have criticized the Food and Drug Administration for not acting faster to avoid or limit the shortages after discovering bacterial contamination at an Abbott factory in Michigan.
©2022 Bloomberg L.P.
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