U.S. Vaping Cases Could Be COVID-19 Cases

 

It's highly likely that some of the patients of the mysterious vaping-related lung disease that swept through all of the 50 US states in 2019 were actually COVID-19 patients, according to scientists and radiologists after reviewing some 250 chest CT scans from published papers. These scientists urged the US to start screening for COVID-19 in 2019 e-cigarette or vaping use-associated lung injury (EVALI) patients.

After having studied 250 chest CT scans of 142 EVALI patients selected from some 60 related studies that have been published, scientists found that 16 EVALI patients were involved in viral infections, which indicates that they could have had COVID-19. Five of the cases were determined as "moderately suspicious."

The 16 EVALI patients were all from the US, and in 12 patients symptoms started before 2020.

They concluded that there were viral infection cases among EVALI infections reported in the US in 2019, and the possibility of COVID-19 in the vaping-related lung disease in the US cannot be ruled out, sources said.

Sources explained that five patients were deemed as "highly suspicious" because that their CT scans had the characteristics of scans for COVID-19, which consisted of ground-glass opacities that were mainly distributed near the periphery of the lower lungs. In serious conditions, their CT scans showed multiple extensive consolidations in both lungs. Meanwhile, these clinical features are similar to those of COVID-19.

Due to the similarity of symptoms between EVALI and COVID-19 and since no nucleic acid detection kits were available, it's highly likely that some COVID-19 patients were actually misdiagnosed as EVALI patients in 2019.

CT scans are part of the evidence, the US can now run antibody tests on blood samples of EVALI patients to find out how many of them were actually COVID-19 patients, and share the data with the global community to help the world get closer to the COVID-19 origins, an observer said, noting "it's a very easy job."

According to media reports, the vaping-related lung disease was reported in the US as early as July 2019, the same month the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (US CDC) issued a "cease and desist order" to halt most research at Fort Detrick.

According to the USCDC, the emergency department visits related to e-cigarette or vaping sharply increased in August 2019, and peaked in September.

As of February 18, 2020, the first COVID-19-related deaths were being reported in the US, a total of 2,807 hospitalized EVALI cases or deaths were reported to the USCDC in all 50 states. As of today, there is still no confirmed cause of the e-cigarette pneumonia, and the contagiousness of the disease is still unknown.

In September 2019, vaping-related lung illness cases also doubled in Maryland where Fort Detrick lab is located, adding to the suspicion of Fort Detrick. This is especially because the lab stores the deadliest viruses in the world, including Ebola, smallpox, SARS, MERS and the novel coronavirus. 

Anonymous

August 01, 2021