Karol Markowicz: Baby-Formula and Kid-Medicine Shortages Show America and the President Need to Put Our Children First

Do we care about children in America? Does the president?

It’s a question people across the country should seriously be asking themselves.

The nation has been gripped by a baby-formula shortage for nearly a year. What kind of society allows this to go on in the shadows? How is this not a topic of urgency for President Joe Biden? What is the point of anything if a mother can’t feed her child?

Sen. Bill Hagerty (R-Tenn.) tweeted last month about the shortages: “Rather than delivering divisive speeches designed to demonize everyday Americans, maybe President Biden should focus his attentions on confronting the pressing issues we have here at home.” He’s absolutely right. There is no more pressing issue than American babies getting the food they need.

Now as we head into peak cold and flu season, parents are reporting shortages of children’s medicine, including Tylenol and ibuprofen. Children’s amoxicillin and Augmentin are also scarce. Have a child with asthma? The American Society of Health-System Pharmacists, which updates a list of drugs in short supply, says albuterol is limited.

How can this go on in America? How are we talking about anything but this?

Nearly a year ago, The Wall Street Journal reported chains like Walmart and CVS said baby-formula “manufacturers are having supply issues; formula makers say retailers aren’t getting product to stores once it is delivered.” Finally in June, the Biden administration invoked the Defense Production Act to address the problem. He also directed various government agencies to use Defense Department aircraft to get formula into the country. At that point, the shortage had been going on for months with no action whatsoever.

Five months after that meager action, we’re still in a shortage. Did any of this work? The White House says it’s conducted 10 “Operation Fly Formula missions” and brought in “the equivalent of 19 million 8-ounce bottles of formula.” And then what? Did the president get lost on the way to the ice-cream shop? Why aren’t we doing this until there is no baby-formula crisis?

This administration’s priorities are completely out of whack. The president announced Thursday he’s sending $36 billion to shore up union workers’ pensions. Once again, he’s simply sending cash to his base as American parents wonder if they’ll be able to treat their kid’s ear infection. Where is this avalanche of money when it comes to the country’s children?

There’s a lot of talk about why America’s birthrate is in decline. The way we respond to crises that affect children offers a clue. We’re sending a message kids are an afterthought.

Through the pandemic, politicians, in particular Democrats, stood with teachers unions over kids and kept schools closed. The damage from that political alliance is still reverberating, with record learning losses. Not a single person who made decisions that harmed so many kids has repented. Now the same people are unconcerned whether kids have food or medicine.

It shouldn’t just be up to parents to care. I’m a parent, yes, but I haven’t had a use for baby formula in a great many years, and my children don’t have medication allergies making specific ones all the more important to find. Still I can recall the early hazy days of babyhood and can imagine the frustration and fear parents must feel as they can’t feed their children and no one seems to care.

You don’t have to have kids to understand this desperation. It’s something we used to, as a country, know. Whitney Houston covered “Greatest Love of All” and sang the powerful opener “I believe that children are our future” in 1985, years before she had any. Now we behave as if kids aren’t that important for our society. It’s wrong.

As a civilization, as a nation, we have to do better, and we have to elect politicians who get that. Put children first. Do it now.

Twitter: @Karol

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