Thread by @CASAAmedia

Just...wow. This statement by @WHO is filled with misinformation, disingenuity, misdirection, half-truths, unproven claims, irony and outright lies! There's a lot to unpack here, so buckle down for a long thread...

🧵👇1/16

who.int/news/item/14-1…

A disingenuous...lie. The gold standard in scientific reviews 👇 found them to be VERY effective. While most are clinical studies, not "population level," we cannot ignore the fact that smoking has dramatically declined as vaping levels have risen. 2/16

cochrane.org/news/latest-co…

What "alarming evidence?" There are fewer people smoking than ever before in countries where people are switching to vaping, without any reports of serious adverse effects from the vaping. In fact, most vapers report IMPROVED health effects! 3/16

"Recruited" by whom? Youth are more likely to find out about vaping from an anti-vaping campaign on youth-oriented media than something from the industry. And the fact that overall tobacco and nicotine use has DECLINED in the US refutes the claim that youth are getting "hooked."

A half-truth. "Toxic" is relative. The dose makes the poison. Not only do vapor products contain FAR lower levels of those POTENTIAL toxins (maybe even to the point of not even being harmful,) thousands of other chemicals that are found in smoke are NOT FOUND in vapor. 5/16

Extremely misleading. The effect of nicotine on brain development has only been studied in RATS and millions of adults who smoked didn't have any brain damage from adolescent smoking. Additionally, studies found nicotine can ENHANCE learning and memory: frontiersin.org/articles/10.33…

An unproven claim. According to this 2023 review of the available research👇they can only guess based on how SMOKING affects pregnancy (vaping is NOT smoking) and looking at ANIMAL studies. This is based on conjecture and ignores harm reduction potential.

ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/P…

A misleading half-truth. What kind of risks does it pose? How significant is the risk? Is the risk greater than or less than other ACCEPTABLE RISKS we take every day, like breathing in fumes from auto emissions, cooking oils, fireplaces, scented candles and air fresheners?
8/16

A misdirection to hide facts. It's true that the US "rates" are 10% of high school students vs 7.76% of adults vaping. HOWEVER, that equates to 1.56 million high school students vs 11.1 million adults! Even with high school and middle school combined it's still only 2.13 million.

How ironic, then, that social media (and television and radio) has been over-saturated with "public service" ads telling youth that vaping is popular with their friends, comes in "kid-friendly" flavors and is easy to hide from parents and teachers. 🤔
10/16

Studies also show that most young people who try cigarettes DON'T become regular users and most who use e-cigarettes frequently were either A) already smoking before vaping or B) already at high risk to smoke. Also, US youth smoking is at a RECORD LOW!

. jamanetwork.com/journals/jaman…

Sure. You just have to "ban harder," right? Ask Australia how that's been working out for them:
12/16
filtermag.org/australia-vapi…

Only Bloomberg-funded organizations like WHO insist vaping does more harm to the population then good. Later in the statement they'll talk about the fact that the tobacco industry continues "to sell billions of cigarettes," but let's reduce the appeal of safer alternatives. 🤦‍♂️13/

The best available evidence shows traditional cessation strategies (NRT, medications, etc) have a dismal success rate and, unlike vaping, NONE of those would ever inspire someone without any intention of quitting to try them then "accidentally" quit:
14/16
nih.gov/news-events/ni…

Again, ask Australia how their prescription scheme has been working for them:


Whoever came up with the boneheaded idea that low risk alternatives to smoking should be more difficult to buy than deadly cigarettes should be fired NOT emulated!
15/16 filtermag.org/australia-vapi…

"False" evidence? The FDA has authorized several vapor products as “appropriate for the protection of the public health," the UK gov't states e-cigs are "far less harmful than cigarettes," and the NZ Ministry of Health states vaping is "less harmful than smoking for smokers."🤔