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In March 2020, as the COVID-19 coronavirus disease continued to spread around the globe, worried citizens started to stock up on supplies to wait out the storm in the relative safety of their homes. As store shelves were temporarily emptied, a viral message started to circulate on social media that claimed anyone looking for baby formula during this pandemic could obtain some by simply calling the number on the back of one of these products: This viral meme reads: For parents who cannot find formula in stores for their babies right now grab the can of formula that you do have, and call the number on the back and they will send you a whole case during this time! This is not true. You can't receive a free case of baby formula simply by calling the number on the back of a product. This claim appears to have originated out of whole cloth. One red flag that indicates this post contains faulty advice is that no specific company is identified in the message. We searched the websites of some of the larger baby formula brands, such as Gerber and Enfamil, and found no announcements about how parents could obtain baby formula via this method during the pandemic. The Motherload, a Facebook group for mothers, reached out to Aptamil Customer Services and quoted the company as saying the rumor was false. From the Facebook post: And a spokesperson for that company also confirmed to Yahoo News that the rumor was false: A spokesperson for Gerber confirmed to us via email that this rumor wasn't true. Gerber also told us that families can find information about discounted products on the website gerber.com/coupons: The Gerber spokesperson told us: On March 16, Enfamil also responded to this rumor via a Facebook post. Enfamil confirmed that they were not giving away free cases of formula and informed parents that they can use the Enfamil store locator or the Enfamil shop to find baby formula:
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