Missing Meds: U.S. Faces Child Antibiotics Shortage

There was the border crisis, the banking crisis, and now yet another crisis is brewing on President Joe Biden's watch. Critics are calling out Biden for failing to address the ongoing shortage of children's antibiotics, first reported by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) last October. The main issue, as with so many other product shortages in recent years, is America's overreliance on foreign production of our medicines and antibiotics. "Ninety percent of the raw materials that we use for the ingredients in our medications are manufactured in third-world countries, in China, or in India," says Dr. Janette Nesheiwat, medical director of CityMD, in a recent interview with Fox News.

The shortage has forced Dr. Nesheiwat and her colleagues to find work-arounds during the busy cold and flu season this past winter. "If we don't have, for example, penicillin to treat strep throat, I can easily switch from one class of antibiotics to another to get my patients treated," she tells Fox. "But for some people, it's life threatening...sometimes there's nothing else that we can substitute."

'Life threatening' is the key phrase that makes this particular supply chain issue different than others. "It can result literally in patient deaths, so we need to be taking this pharmaceutical infrastructure as seriously as we are the recent collapse of the Silicon Valley Bank," Dr. Nesheiwat continues.

So far, the Biden administration has been nearly silent on this antibiotic shortage. White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre spoke about it in general terms back in December, saying they are "monitoring" the shortage. Since then, there has been nothing, including no statements about it from the president. In the meantime, those in the field like Dr. Nesheiwat are left to sound the alarm. "Look what we were doing recently when we faced this baby formula shortage---we were bringing it in from other countries out of desperation," she tells Fox. "We shouldn't be putting ourselves in that position."