Sen. Schumer calls on FDA for action on kids’ medicine shortages amid surge of COVID, RSV and flu

The FDA needs to take action as New York City and Long Island suffer from dangerous “spot shortages” of medicine for children due to the triple threat of COVID, RSV and the flu, Sen. Chuck Schumer said Sunday.

Running low on store shelves are meds like Tylenol, Motrin and Robitussin, Schumer said at a news conference.

“With surging rates of RSV, the flu and even COVID and colds, New York City and Long Island drug stores are struggling to keep children’s medicines in stock,” the Democratic lawmaker said, holding up a copy of a Daily News front page to make his point.

“These ‘spot shortages’ are becoming a real problem for many parents and caregivers, and so today, I am asking the FDA to investigate them locally and determine if official action might be required to address them,” he said.

Tylenol, Robitussin and Ibuprofen are the three most hard-to-find medicines this holiday season, the Daily News reported last week.

“I’ve been talking with many young parents who have been going from uptown, downtown, east, west for Children’s Tylenol. They can’t keep that up,” Schumer said.

“The bottom line here is that kids should not have medications like Tylenol, Robitussin, Motrin and more on their Christmas lists,” he said.

The FDA could expedite the importation approvals of foreign manufacturers and work with industry to target chemical and material shortages for making drugs, he said.

“We should be able to address this at the federal level if the problem persists locally, and that is what I will be pushing for,” Schumer said.

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