Shots Across The Bow

Why is This Story Flying Under the Radar?

Imagine this scene: A major US company develops and markets an infant formula specifically for African Americans, and sell it in predominantly black neighborhoods. They hype the formula as meeting specific needs of that community. And their product is a big seller, capturing a third of the market.

Then babies start to get sick and die. Some are permanently brain damaged. Others show no apparent damage, but the damage could be hidden, surfacing years from now. The damage is linked to this formula, which, on independent review, is found to be deficient in Vitamin B-1. Further investigation shows that the manufacturer changed the formula to remove the B-1 supplement.

Wouldn't that be a major story? Wouldn't it be front page, above the fold stuff?

Then why isn't it?

Israel opened a criminal investigation on Monday into suspicions the deaths of two babies were linked to a German-made, soy-based formula pulled off Israeli store shelves and found to lack an essential vitamin.

The article goes on:

Humana GmbH — part of the Humana Milchunion collective, Germany’s second biggest producer of milk products — said in a statement it was looking into the matter and suggested the illness “may have had other causes.”
Remedia indicated Humana was responsible.
At a news conference in Herford, Germany, Humana chief Rolf Janshen said the formula recipe was unique to Israel and no other markets were affected.
He said Humana had commissioned independent laboratories to check the formula and “contrary to the Israeli findings, vitamin B-1 has been found.”
Israeli Health Minister Dan Naveh has called on his German counterpart to “get into the picture as soon and as seriously as possible.” Israeli health officials said the formula deviated from its original approved composition.

That was on the 11th. Yesterday, the sang a different song.

Humana GmbH, part of the Humana Milchunion collective, Germany's second biggest producer of milk products, said in a statement that its kosher Remedia Super Soya 1 product did not contain the amount of vitamin B-1 that the product advertised.

Okay, I know that sometimes things just happen, that coincidence is the rule, not the exception, but still, a German company sells a product specifically tailored for Jewish consumption, changes the formulation, and winds up with a product that kills babies...

And that's not worthy of major coverage?

OK, it's only an Israeli problem. That's why it's not getting much coverage, right?

Nope.

Heinz, which bought 51% of Remedia in 1999, said the Remedia formula isn't manufactured, sold or marketed by any Heinz unit anywhere else in the world. But although Remedia doesn't export the formula, some independent companies may have shipped small amounts to other countries, generally for consumption by families who observe Jewish dietary laws, Heinz said.

So I looked for warnings in America and found this:

The Israeli baby formula was pulled off the shelves during the weekend in seven or eight Rockland grocery stores that cater to the county's Jewish population.

Shopkeepers were asked to remove all varieties of the Remedia brand from the shelves, even though officials believe the problem occurred only in the soy formula.

Local authorities took the step after Israeli officials connected the soy formula to three infant deaths and about 20 cases of brain damage.

The soy formula made by Remedia, an Israeli company partly owned by the Pittsburgh-based H.J. Heinz Co., listed vitamin B1 among its ingredients but apparently did not contain the essential nutrient.

Notice anything odd? Try this, the lead paragraph:

The Rockland Department of Health yesterday warned pediatricians and family doctors to be on the lookout for signs of vitamin B1 deficiency in infants who were fed an Israeli baby formula that lacked the essential nutrient.

I routinely blow off most charges of anti-Semitism, chalking it up to the natural cussedness of human behavior, but damn! All of the sudden, it's an Israeli baby formula. The German company isn't even mentioned in this article. Is this just sloppy reporting?

Posted by Rich at November 14, 2003 2:24 PM | TrackBack