Thread by @VaporAmerican

This is one of the most outrageously misleading and distorted articles we’ve ever seen in a serious publication, and that’s saying something. THREAD 🧵

Unmentioned: teen vaping has declined more than 60 percent since the cited timeframe here and CDC is now withholding the latest data, likely because it reveals an even further drop.

That means the headline itself is a factual error. Again, according to CDC’s own data, teen vaping is *DOWN* at least 60 percent in the last two years. Calling that a “return to vaping” is flat-out, no doubt, and entirely false – and we will seek published correction.

Fixed this graf for ya: …which is completely legal, entirely disconnected from tobacco, and in the entirety of medical literature has been found to have harmed precisely zero people.

Yeah, they sure did – which drove countless thousands of Americans back into smoking cigarettes, a thoroughly documented effect that you concealed from readers.

Another complete factual error here. CDC in fact studied the so-called EVALI outbreak and, like many other researchers, concluded it was caused by illicit THC products – and not, repeat *NOT*, nicotine vaping.

As someone on the federal health agency beat, Ms. Jewett certainly knows this but is nevertheless obscuring that critical fact from readers. Here’s the best article we’ve seen showing just how irresponsible and destructive that deceit has been:
medium.com/the-great-vape…

We are “driving trucks of poison” says the person who has no qualms corralling Americans back into cigarettes. Nice. We would have been glad to respond to this outlandish caca-del-toro but of course we never heard from the New York Times.

Unmentioned: pushing the measure as a rider in this fashion means no hearings, no debate, no public input of any kind. Ironically, that’s precisely what the proverbial “smoke-filled back room” in politics means.

We would have been glad to chat with you, Ms. Jewett. Give us a call, hit us up in the DMs, send an email. Framing the response this way enables NYT to pretend like our industry is hiding. But we are standing tall and we are right here.

Once again, these are legal products being purchased almost entirely by adults who are trying valiantly to quit smoking cigarettes.

The Times is using these figures to mislead readers about the actual context of youth vaping. Here is chart from CDC’s own data which shows the real-world youth vaping numbers and puff bar in particular:

Yeah, that’s because you don’t have the legal authority. It’s also why your agency is the defendant in seven different federal circuits about whether you should even be regulating nicotine vaping in the first place. All unmentioned in the article, natch.

Just unbelievably irresponsible to publish images like this and insinuate a connection to nicotine vaping. Again, CDC investigated this outbreak and concluded it was caused by illicit THC and not nicotine vaping.

Read your notes again, Ms. Jewett, and take another look at the CDC’s EVALI report. Do you notice anything jumping out?

And guess what happens when you mislead the American public this way, NYT? Millions of people get the completely wrong and entirely untrue impression that vaping is somehow more dangerous than cigarettes – AND. THEY. CONTINUE. SMOKING. CIGARETTES.
tobaccocontrol.bmj.com/content/early/…

Notice please too that Ms. Jewett and the New York Times never quote any of the millions of adult Americans who are successfully quitting cigarettes by vaping. Why is that, Ms. Jewett?

You keep using this word as a substitute for “a perfectly legal and safe product that I wish were outlawed.”

This is just a ludicrous way to smuggle a scaremongering quote in print. Same as: “I heard that handling newsprint paper can leach ink into the skin which can result in brain damage and telekinesis, but we are still researching to find out for sure.”

We will be asking the Times for published correction on the errors and we would welcome a conversation with you any time, Ms. Jewett. But this is more than an academic exercise.

Bunk journalism like this is actively dissuading people from quitting cigarettes and providing a bandwagon for prohibitionists.

Here’s the thing, though: The New York Times already knows that but they do not care. ⬇️

@threadreaderapp unroll