What The News! : Beware of Misinformed Reporters

So apparently, the FDA has been investigating reports of seizures and their relation to vaping. In simpler terms, they asked people to report if they or anyone they know has health issues after vaping.
According to CNBC this morning, the FDA is handling 127 cases of supposed seizures while vaping.

Today's What The News! is going to take a slight detour from finding hard facts to investigating a particularly shady article. I've given you the overall topic of the article in question, but I would like to dive a little further because the truth is that instead of actually using science to test the validity of health risks where vaping is concerned, the USA would like to just demonize and banish without a second thought. No matter how many people have found that they were finally able to escape an addiction that patches and gum don't help, no matter the study the UK did that took years with control groups for neutrality, no matter that the people talking crap on e-cigs and vapor technology don't actually care about the well-being of anyone.... This is why typical journalism just isn't for me.


via GIPHY

While scrolling the Google search engine for the latest and craziest vape news, I discovered an article entitled:

FDA investigating 127 reports of seizures after vaping

Of course, this made no sense so I dived right in. This is where it gets juicy.

Did you know that nicotine is poisonous? I'm sure in high.... extremely high doses it can be. Many people say they experience a "buzz" and too much can have you bed ridden or dehydrated enough to induce a hospital visit, but no more than experienced with tobacco smokers.

 The article cited the National Capital Poison Center saying e-liquids have high concentrations of nicotine and that can cause death.


via GIPHY

 After clicking the link for the source, I found myself on an article of the NCPC site that discusses the absolute horrifying dangers of nicotine and why you should keep it away from children. Apparently, seizures can start within 30 minutes of ingesting vape liquid. I really wonder who studied that finding.

 The site also claims a 42 year old man was found dead at home with alcoholic beverages and an empty bottle of nicotine liquid or "smoke juice" as they so lovingly called it. It must have been the nicotine right? Not any other health problems? Not alcohol poisoning? 

TANGENT!! 

So the vape shop I work in has some fun stories and there was a guy that got really drunk one day and accidentally downed a 60ml bottle of liquid. The worst that happened to the poor guy was having wasted a whole bottle and desperately needing more. Doc recommended drinking plenty of fluids and taking it easy. 

So after reading that article, I had to double check the sources. One of which being an article the CDC published, but not recently. No, this source they credited was posted in 2013. It's 2019 in case anyone forgot and the FDA still readily admits that there is more and more that has yet to be discovered about nicotine and it's relation to vaping as opposed to cigarettes. 

Back to the original article in question:

 It was written by one of CNBC's Health and Science journalists by the name of Angelica LaVito. Her article mentioned early on that the FDA had begun their investigation back in April where there were 35 cases of potential nicotine caused seizures after vaping. These words were linked. So I clicked thinking I would go to the FDA site or some outside information on this at least......

The link to me to another CNBC article written back in April talking about the 35 cases (that spanned 10 years) and what the FDA was doing. Then I saw who wrote it. You guessed it! Angelica LaVito. There isn't anything wrong with citing yourself or following an FDA investigation with multiple articles. Keep your readers informed, but at least don't plagiarize yourself. 

Remember when I mentioned the NCPC and supposed nicotine poisoning being a major problem?

It may be difficult to see, but the two paragraphs are identical! In fact, both articles seem to be saying the same thing with catchy headlines. So it's fine to just copy and paste a whole paragraph into a later article or this reporter just couldn't think of another way to scare her readers away from vaping and back towards smoking. 

 The article posted this morning offered a disclosure at the end (they know good and well that most of their readers won't reach the bottom) listing Scott Gottlieb as a contributor. While I'm surprised they admitted it, this points to a clear conflict of interest and explains why the article seems so opinionated. They don't emphasize the lack of evidence pointing to vaping as the cause but they emphasize the number of people claiming to have been or know someone negatively effected by nicotine in e-cigarettes. These claims are currently undergoing investigation for validity and evidence, but CNBC and LaVito don't seem to be concerned with reporting the truth. Instead they want to cloud their readers with misleading headlines and outrageous claims that cannot be backed by science or even logic. 

Maybe one day we can get back to honest reporting and helpful journalism. Until then, you always have What The News! every Wednesday to keep you filled in with the facts and articles to beware of. The Cloud Mermaid does not currently accept contributions and will never accept contributions from anyone except it's readers. It's called neutrality and yes it's a moral obligation. Check back next week for another crazy claim and don't forget to check out the Facebook page where you can stay up to date on the latest posts. The Cloud Mermaid Facebook Page

Links for the articles mentioned:
https://www.cnbc.com/2019/08/07/fda-investigating-127-reports-of-seizures-after-vaping.html
https://www.cnbc.com/2019/04/03/fda-investigating-nearly-three-dozen-reports-of-seizures-after-vaping.html