Heads Should Roll at CDC after Botched Vaping Investigation

[PeteS in CA]

https://www.realclearpolicy.com/articles/2019/11/22/heads_should_roll_at_cdc_after_botched_vaping_investigation_111314.html

Heads Should Roll at CDC after Botched Vaping Investigation

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has finally identified a primary suspect in the wave of vaping-related lung illnesses and deaths.

Examining lung tissue samples of patients hospitalized with vaping-related illnesses, 100 percent tested positive for vitamin e acetate, often used to cut marijuana oils. This was not a surprise to those who have been arguing that the cause of these illnesses is not the commercial e-cigarette market, but the illicit market for THC vapes.

For the past three months, the CDC's data showed a clear pattern. Those getting sick have been vaping illicit or adulterated THC. A tiny minority of patients claimed to have vaped just nicotine but were often found to be lying, most likely due to the fact that marijuana is still a schedule one substance.

It should have been obvious to CDC that regular e-cigarettes were not and could not have been causing these illnesses. Commercial nicotine e-cigarettes have been on the American and European markets for more than a decade and are used by tens of millions of people.

I have to disagree with the article title. This was not a "botch". It was an assault by bureaucrats on an industry the bureaucrats didn't have under their regulatory thumb. That quibble aside, heads should roll, and their power abuse, not for incompetence.

[corbe]

 

   IMHO, this was a concentrated effort by the major Tobacco Manufacturers in the US to shut down potential competition AND Trump almost fell for it.

[Smokin Joe]

 

   IMHO, this was a concentrated effort by the major Tobacco Manufacturers in the US to shut down potential competition AND Trump almost fell for it.

I'm not so sure the tobacco industry is to blame, so much as the anti-tobacco industry, who have been attacking vaping tooth and claw since it started.