A real world consequence of the ideological battle between free marketers and regulators ---

There are 300 drug, vitamin, and trace-element shortages in the US, the highest number ever recorded by the University of Utah Drug Information Service, which began tracking national shortages in 2001. [...] The nutrients in shortage aren’t rare. “We’re talking about zinc, phosphorous, calcium—trace elements,” says CHA president Mark Wietecha. “These aren’t the latest genetically modified drugs or something coming out of modern high-tech environments. These have been around for decades.”[...] The shortages affect every patient using intravenous nutrition, but neonates are the most vulnerable because they have no reserves. If a hospital is out of phosphorous, for example—and many hospitals are critically low—the babies have no storage to draw on. [...] “If we run out of phosphorous, there definitely will be deaths,” says a NICU dietitian in a DC hospital. “At this point, we’re not even trying to give enough to get patients into a normal range. We’re giving just enough to prevent them from dying.”