West Plains, Mo. – Ozark Radio News spoke with the Administrator of the Howell County Health Department Chris Gilliam on the National Formula Shortage. For the full discussion interview, listen below.
Transcripts Below:
Dan Williams:
This is Dan here with Ozark Radio News. And I’m here talking with Chris Gilliam. He’s the administrator of the Howell County Health Department. Wanted to try to bring you in here to talk about some of the issues with formula in the U.S and kind of what programs that you guys can offer to ease up on people regarding this issue.
Chris Gilliam:
You know Dan, we wanted to discuss a number of programs that we currently have. I think people probably forget from time to time what it is exactly that we do. And there are some clinical programs I particularly wanted to mention this morning to get your listeners… Perhaps peak their interest in what we do offer. Immunizations is probably one of our bigger programs that we offer and of course, as of recent months and years we’ve been promoting COVID vaccinations. And so, we do continue to encourage local people to get COVID vaccinations. We offer a walk in or drive through clinic every Wednesday from nine to four at the health department. We also offer the COVID vaccinations at our satellite clinics in both Mountain View and Willow Springs. And we do that once a month. So, we want to encourage people to do those, but we also provide infant and child vaccinations.
Chris Gilliam:
We provide school vaccinations and adult vaccinations. Travel vaccinations is something oftentimes we don’t consider here in the Ozarks, but for those who travel, it’s important that they check before they travel, what the vaccine requirements are. And so that’s something we can also help with individuals. Right now school just letting out, we’re not really thinking about back to school vaccinations, but if you’ve got a kindergartner or if you’ve got an eighth grader or even a child going into their senior year, there are mandatory vaccines that they’ll need to be planning to get.
Chris Gilliam:
And we encourage people to plan that early, schedule those appointments early because of the wait late in the summer just prior to school returning, we have a harder time getting folks in and the time it takes to get people scheduled and then takes much longer. So we encourage people to start making those calls now, even though it does seem rather early. We also provide, well a full array of vaccines, honestly, and then probably too many to go into today. But we do offer a full listing of our services, including vaccinations on our website at howellcountyhealth.com. And we encourage people to take a look at that.
Dan Williams:
Now, I do know with the current issue, with many shortages of various different formulas and stuff. A lot of people are trying to talk about substitutions, but I think the best thing is to just make sure to discuss things with your doctor first, is that right?
Chris Gilliam:
You’re absolutely right. Dan, I’ve read different things and people are touting different options and even homemade formula. And basically what I want to encourage people to do is don’t even consider that as an option. And before we make any moves, like you said, Dan it’s imperative that they speak to their pediatrician or child’s doctor prior to making any changes in the formula.
Dan Williams:
Mm-hmm. And that makes a lot of sense to me too. I mean, if you think about it, there are a lot of people around here in the Ozarks. We’re very crafty people obviously, especially considering our parents or grandparents oftentimes canned or raised or made a lot of stuff on their own, we have at least a decent understanding, I would think of many different crafting options whenever it comes to these types of things. But as we all know, sometimes equipment is not equipped to handle certain types of bacteria, which is what caused this problem in the first place. So it’s not like that people can’t have some options there, but they definitely do need to try to discuss that with their doctors first.
Chris Gilliam:
Right. Right. The truth is that the bacteria or the germ that caused the recall in the first place back in February, it’s a pretty common type of bacteria that we find, Cronobacter. And in fact, it’s something we find naturally in our environment, it can exist on your countertop. So, it’s easy to, although we don’t see a lot of severe illnesses from Cronobacter, it is fairly prevalent in our environment. So people need to be careful, not only the ingredients in food items they give their child, but how hygienic and how clean or careful they are when handling those materials of course.
Dan Williams:
Now that doesn’t mean everybody needs to get out there and start being almost cartoonishly cautious of the world around them. You know doing the germ vision thing with the full gloves and everything else. But at least being aware of some of the issues that are regarding this kind of thing will just kind of help you be a bit more mindful of the process as you’re going through it. And once again, talking with your doctors, a great option for this is as far as I understand. I don’t think we can necessarily list any options here just because babies are so sensitive to different things. It’s just best to consult your family doctor.
Chris Gilliam:
Right. And keep in mind also that it was just the powdered formula that was recalled. The liquid formula is still available. I also know that the federal government has taken some steps, as this is a USDA funded program that we offer, that being WIC at the health department. These decisions are made at the federal level and I do know there have been some steps taken by the White House. And I do know that on the 18th, the President had assigned the Defense Powers Act. And of course that’s geared to help with supply chain issues and production issues. He also approved at that time, the Operation Fly Formula, which is an expedited distribution system, which we’ll use federal resources to help with that.
Chris Gilliam:
And in addition, some of your listeners may also be aware that we’ve also begun bringing in shipments of the formula from overseas. And so, there are a number of things that are being done. And I also am aware that the House of Representatives has just passed a 28 million emergency fund package to address these problems as well. So, things are moving slowly, Dan, they are, and we’re not out of the woods yet, but our efforts are being made at the national and even the state level to help alleviate some of the concerns and problems that the shortage has caused.
Dan Williams:
It’s kind of one of those things where it may be a bit of a worrisome topic, but there’s no reason to really panic about these kinds of things, because there are processes in place that are kind of being put through to, like you said, alleviate the issues. But not only that, there are even steps that you can take as an individual to try to ease things on yourself as well. Once again, just want to try to stress that talking to your family doctor is one of the best things, and you shouldn’t worry too much about the state of things or even the future, because things will get better as they progress. It’s more like stay cautious, but not afraid.
Chris Gilliam:
You said it and I think that is the key. We should be concerned, but not panicked. And that’s one of the kind of the adages that public health often uses. And it certainly applies in this situation as well.
Dan Williams:
All right. Well, thank you for talking with us, Chris. We’ll hopefully get this out of here pretty soon. And hopefully a lot of people can hear what you’re talking about.
Chris Gilliam:
Great. Thank you, Dan.
Dan Williams:
Thank You.
