President Obama to order full review of FDA - recent failure just 1 of many over the years

[WillYourVoteBCounted]

Obama says FDA has failed numerous times to protect the public in the last several years.

Obama to order full review of FDA operations

President disturbed that agency missed salmonella-linked peanut products By Alex Johnson Reporter TODAY updated 7:48 a.m. ET, Mon., Feb. 2, 2009
President Barack Obama is ordering a “complete review” of the Food and Drug Administration after it failed to detect shipments of salmonella-contaminated peanut products that have sickened more than 500 people and may be linked to as many as eight deaths, he told TODAY co-host Matt Lauer.

In an interview that aired Monday, Obama said the agency’s failure to recognize and intercept the products was only the latest of numerous “instances over the last several years” in which “the FDA has not been able to catch some of these things as quickly as I expect them to catch.”

He did not cite what other incidents he was referring to. But critics have accused the administration of former President George W. Bush of having crippled the agency by cutting its budget over the last eight years.

...“At bare minimum, we should be able to count on our government keeping our kids safe when they eat peanut butter,” Obama told Lauer in the interview, which was conducted Sunday at the White House....

....

[MadMaddie]

1. Apparantly since 2001 the FDA has been ineffective

The organization is extremely underfunded and severely understaffed.

[Why Syzygy]

2. Oversight...

Every day and in every way it gets better and better not living in GW's banana republic.

[liberalmuse]

3. He'd better purge it of the Bush ideologues if he wants it to work again.

Apparently Bush has stocked the FDA and entire government with asshat republican "sleepers".

[varkam]

4. Bush ran on the premise that big government was bad.

And then he tried to prove it in office.

Let's hope Obama can pick up the pieces.

[pnwmom]

7. That's exactly what he did. n/t

[elleng]

5. THEY will be hugely busy.

Anyone want a job?

[SidDithers]

6. Related story from Toronto Star...

Canada sent tainted peanuts back to U.S.

WASHINGTON – Weeks before the earliest signs of a U.S.-wide salmonella outbreak that now has been traced to peanuts from a Georgia processing plant, peanuts exported by the same company were found to be contaminated and were returned to the United States, The Associated Press has learned.

The shipment rejected by Canada was logged by the Food and Drug Administration but never tested by federal inspectors, according to the government's own records.

The chopped peanuts from Peanut Corp. of America in Blakely, Ga., were prevented by the FDA from being allowed back into the United States in mid-September because the peanuts contained an unspecified ``filthy, putrid or decomposed substance, or is otherwise unfit for food," according to an FDA report of the incident.

http://www.thestar.com/article/579652

Sid

[pnwmom]

8. Finally, the FDA will have some accountability. n/t

[pnorman]

9. A couple of days ago, I spotted a reference to that Georgia peanut processing plant.

It seems that it hadn't had a proper FDA inspection in the past EIGHT years! Question: WHO was minding the store during those past EIGHT years? Hmmmm?

Later, I'll try to Google for specific confirmation, but my memory is pretty clear on that point.

pnorman

[Why Syzygy]

10. This will help ..

http://www.mindfully.org/Health/2006/FDA-von-Eschenbach18aug06.htm

In addition to their drug company connections presenting a conflict of interest, both Gottleib and von Eschenbach have recently caused other controversy. Gottlieb was publicly criticized for not putting enough emphasis on consumer safety, and von Eschenbach had to cancel his National Cancer Institute going away party because the invitations apparently requested gifts, which violates federal law.

The von Eschenbach-run FDA also came under fire during a Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) and Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER) survey of FDA scientists, which found that the agency was "perverting science for political and financial benefactors," Richards said. The report also quoted scientists who said that Congress, FDA management, and the media were too easily able to interfere with their work. The FDA has also interfered with safe and effective nutritional supplements, Richards charges, but points out that, in contrast, warning letters to drug companies have declined dramatically.

[trotsky]

11. It's long overdue, and the FDA probably needs its funding doubled.

At least.