Canada is doing fine, formula-wise, as well. FDA screwed up.
Yes the FDA screwed up. Its a bureaucratic failure. They treated the issue according to their bloated and slow procedures without considering the big picture - that they were shutting down a major source of supply of infant formula, without any possibility of substitution. That is because they are essentially robots.
Bureaucracies are inherently stupid. It is the job of the executive branch to ride herd on them, otherwise they will persist robotically as they are programmed to run. It would have been the role of the company, in this case Abbott, to raise this as a problem, notably with the relevant politicians. What happened there I dont know. Its possible that Abbott management did not want to make waves with the FDA in fear of retaliation. Bureaucracies can also be vindictive.