Due to a surge in demand the last few weeks, there have been reports of children’s medicine during this cold and flu season.
Experts say the spike in flu and other respiratory illnesses, along with some communities still dealing with COVID-19 cases, is causing some stores to run out of medicine such as children’s Tylenol.
In response to the shortages, U.S. Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-Auburn) spoke on the Senate floor Tuesday about the issue, and said more of the medicine needs to be made in America.
“Right now, many, many communities across our country are facing a huge shortage of children’s pain killers, like children’s Tylenol, antibiotics, and amoxicillin,” said Tuberville. “We’re in the middle of flu season and (an) unusually bad year for RSV, a virus that can be especially tough for young children. As parents head to pharmacies to get medicine to help their sick kids and make them feel better, they’re seeing very empty shelves across our country.”
He warned against trying to substitute children’s medications with lower doses of adult medications.
“Worse is what some desperate, but well-meaning, parents are turning to in order to provide their children help,” Tuberville. “Moms and dads who can’t find kids’ medicines are choosing to give their children smaller doses of adult medication instead. Doctors are warning constantly against this in the strongest possible terms — a warning we should be sharing far and wide.
“Children’s medicine is specifically designed for the developing young bodies.”
The senator said the long term solution to this problem is creating an environment where more of these kinds of medications are produced in the U.S.
“We need to produce pharmaceuticals in the United States,” he said. “The United States has every capability to produce essential goods right here at home. The pandemic showed us the serious — very serious — consequences of depending on imports for things that we need to survive, especially from adversaries like China.
“Congress and the rest of the federal government should do what we can do to boost domestic production (of) medicine and medical supplies … along with essential goods like fuel and critical minerals, pharmaceuticals are vital to our national security — because we cannot allow our adversaries to hold their supply over our heads as a bargaining tool.”
Yaffee is a contributing writer to Yellowhammer News and hosts “The Yaffee Program” weekdays 9-11 a.m. on WVNN. You can follow him on Twitter @Yaffee
