|
Op-Ed: The CDC is mimicking anti-vaxxer
rhetoric in its messaging on nicotine
[The Center Square] Martin Cullip |
The Taxpayers Protection Alliance
Imagine waking up one
morning and reading the following statement from the U.S. Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention (CDC): “Hundreds of people have been
hospitalized due to side effects of Covid19 vaccinations. Being
vaccinated risks known adverse consequences of blood clotting and
cardiovascular problems.” Also imagine that the CDC failed to mention
the hugely greater advantages of taking the vaccines for hundreds of
millions of people. You would, quite rightly, think they had taken leave
of their senses. |
|
 Yet, this is precisely what the CDC is doing when talking about
reduced risk products which are helping millions of smokers quit tobacco.
On its website, the CDC ominously warns that vaping nicotine
e-cigarettes can cause hospitalization and death despite their knowing very well
that all so-called EVALI cases were caused by the use of illegal vaping
cartridges that contained tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) – the active ingredient in
cannabis. Moreover, many of the culprit vapes were obtained by black market
sources – unlike conventional nicotine-containing e-cigarettes. At no point does
the CDC care to inform the public that vaping has so far helped nearly 10
million Americans to quit smoking and can help adults avoid the well-known harms
of smoking-related disease and death.
A December 2021 CDC press release doubled down on a questionable study
condemning all tobacco harm reduction products by issuing a dire warning about
nicotine pouches, saying that “manufacturers are currently marketing nicotine
pouches and e-cigarettes with synthetic nicotine in the US … nicotine is an
addictive drug with known adverse consequences for fetal development and
adolescent brain development.” Absent from this advice is any recognition of the
huge potential benefits of nicotine pouches to the tens of millions of Americans
still accessing nicotine via lethal combustible tobacco.
The CDC further warns that nicotine products “warrant urgent attention from
policy makers, clinicians, and researchers” but fails to point out that products
which deliver nicotine without the lethal cocktail of toxins produced by
combustion are substantially better for the health of American adults. You would
think that this is a very significant piece of information, but not for the CDC.
And in case you are thinking this is a trivial concern, it’s
not. COVID-19 has so far killed up to 5 million people worldwide since the start
of 2020. In contrast, smoking accounts for around 8 million deaths each year. In
the United States, 480,000 people die annually and may not have had to – if they
had opted for safer nicotine delivery devices, the very same products that are
being demonized by the CDC.
[to top of second column] |
It seems clear that when it comes to tobacco harm
reduction – the term for replacing smoking with safer nicotine
options – the CDC prefers to play political games to mislead the
public rather than give honest and useful advice.
Where anti-vaxxer conspiracy theorists see a
sinister plot by Bill Gates and the World Economic Forum to re-order
society with vaccines, the CDC imagines some tin-foil hat theory
whereby industry is using far safer nicotine products to somehow
encourage more people to smoke. It’s about as credible as saying
cell phone companies are selling their products to promote more use
of rotary phones, but that is exactly the poor quality of messaging
currently being promoted by the CDC.
The public trusts the CDC to provide sound science-based
information, yet their misleading and often categorically false
statements surrounding vapes and other reduced risk nicotine
products borders on fake news. The agency seems wedded to an
abstinence-only approach to consumer nicotine which protects the
cigarette industry. It seems almost ironic that the same agency is
also tasked with tallying the hundreds of thousands of annual deaths
from smoking, many which could be avoided if more people could be
convinced to try safer alternatives.
The CDC is no doubt appalled by the myriad
conspiracy theories about Covid19 vaccinations and has spoken of the
dangerous consequences of misinformation which deters many from
taking vaccinations to protect against the disease. Yet when it
comes to nicotine, the CDC is front and center promoting conspiracy
theories of its own and false facts towards reduced risk products
without even a nod to the huge public health bonus they could
provide if allowed to prosper.
Just as the CDC would wish the public to trust in the net positive
effect of vaccinations over their minimal downsides, so we should
also expect the CDC to stop peddling negligible risks of safer
nicotine products without highlighting the far greater benefits that
they offer.
Martin Cullip is the International Fellow at The Taxpayers
Protection Alliance's Consumer Center and is based in South London,
UK.
 |
