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In his fantastic talk at #GTNF2022, esteemed legal scholar @jadler1969 takes on the FDA’s many failings on vaping policy. Let’s look at some highlights. 🪡
First up, he talks about the agency’s fumbling of the PMTA process:
Adler also provides the receipts on how the FDA and CDC’s negligent messaging directly contributed to dangerous misperceptions about vaping – which started *before* the EVALI screw up:
It’s not surprising the public has been misled about the benefits of vaping. That’s because, as Adler points out, the FDA completely forbids companies from talking about how vaping is safer than combustible cigarettes.
It gets even worse. Vaping companies can’t legally repeat what FDA said at this very conference!.
“Producers of electronic cigarettes can’t quote things that Brian King said here yesterday [ . . .] that are indisputably factually true.”
Finally, Adler explains why these rules would violate the First Amendment and SCOTUS precedent:
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We need to talk about @NPR for a minute. For many months we have been trying to engage with reporters and @NPRpubliceditor over a long pattern of erroneous and slanted coverage on vaping policy – and have been stonewalled.
🧵THREAD
It’s important because NPR is a top outlet, reaching millions of Americans. Listeners trust them because NPR promises high standards. It’s even one of the very few media organizations that still has an ombudsman, Kelly McBride, from the media ethics center Poynter Institute.
But NPR’s journalism on vaping has been consistently slanted and shot through with inaccuracies. It has erroneously hyped panics like EVALI, relied on discredited academics, touted hypothetical harms, all while disregarding vaping’s crucial role in helping adults quit smoking.
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Let’s look at a few epic highlights from @Clive_Bates at the Global Tobacco & Nicotine Forum #GTNF last week.
He was crushing it. First up, it takes courage and integrity to confront the prohibition juggernaut.
Americans count on the press to scrutinize powerful, entrenched actors. That ain’t what’s happening. “The media has been utterly pathetic at investigating this and holding them to account."
On FDA’s ulterior motives and perverse incentives.
Let’s talk about @FDAtobacco Brian King's discontent with facing public criticism. During his cursory remarks and abrupt departure at #GTNF today, King complained that “it’s very easy to be an armchair regulator from the luxury of a social media handle.” THREAD 🪡
Sir, you are a public official. You work for the taxpayers, and you are accountable to American citizens. We have every right to direct questions and critique your way and you have an ethical obligation to explain yourself.
What’s more, any discomfort that either you or your boss, Dr. Califf, may experience on Twitter pales in comparison to the devastating economic and public health consequences that are ongoing from your misguided policies on vaping.
🚨🔎🚨 New report from AVM uncovers the ulterior funding that drives the war on vaping. Huge in scale, with hundreds of millions bankrolling academia, NGOs, lobbyists, PR, lawyers, front groups, and even journalists, all doing the bidding of pompous, unaccountable billionaires.
Did you know that the anti-vaping movement is funded by 3 wealthy foundations - 2 headed by multi-billionaires and the other with a major stake in a smoking cessation product? We did a deep dive to show you what the media refuses to properly investigate.
Here’s a snapshot at the vast amount of money flowing among the wealthy foundations and deep-pocketed public health organizations that are driving misinformation about vaping in the U.S. and around the world. It’s a complex web, but it’s worth untangling.
After months of evading public questions while @FDATobacco’s credibility implodes around him, Brian King hand-picked Politico for his first interview. The article is behind a ($10K subscription!) paywall but let’s unpack the key parts of this travesty.
THREAD 🪡
Notice the framing: FDA’s too timid, FDA’s not doing enough, FDA coddles scofflaws. Those aspects are in hot dispute in nicotine policy world but @Katherineefoley just adopts the party line of the prohibitionists as the default.
There are independent scientists, policy experts, esteemed columnists of all stripes, and manufacturers galore who believe FDA has gone too far and on the wrong basis. Even internal FDA memos show the agency wanted a far less rigid process. That’s all disregarded.
In response to our exposé on his ulterior funding, STAT reporter Nick Florko says he feels “attacked” and “won’t be cowed.” “I will continue to do my job as a journalist,” he insists. Let’s look closer at his misdirection.
THREAD 🧵
Florko says he “made every effort…to include the perspective of AVM.” Asking us whether and how long we have been criminals is hardly a favor. And that’s the broader point Florko evades – STAT’s coverage mirrors its funder’s outlook on this issue.
Bloomberg and the prohibition groups are hounding FDA to increase the severity of a crackdown that has already demolished thousands of businesses and driven countless Americans back to cigarettes.