Research, editing : Gan Yung Chyan, KUCINTA SETIA
Images : The left image is CT scan of an evali patient while the right image is that of a covid patient. (Web Screenshot from Global Times)
News (1)
Mainland Chinese scientists suspect patients of e-vaping lung illness in the U.S. have covid
According to the Communist state-run Global Times (GT), a group of Chinese scientists and radiologists have found that some among the hundreds of mysterious cases of e-vaping lung illness (evali) reported across the United States in 2019 were actually covid cases.
Chinese scientists found that as many as 16 evali patients had viral infections, a factor, according to the scientists, that indicates that the patients could have had COVID-19. "Five of the cases were determined as moderately suspicious," the study says.
"The 16 evali patients were all from the US, and in 12 patients symptoms started before 2020," the report says.
News (2)
Evali and Covid share similar symptoms but not identical
The Chinese scientists say that five of the patients had 'moderately suspicious' case as their CT scans returned similar results as covid patients.
GT quoted the scientists, "In serious conditions, their CT scans showed multiple extensive consolidations in both lungs. Meanwhile, these clinical features are similar to those of COVID-19 patients."
The GT article extensively quotes Yang Zhanqiu, a virologist at Wuhan University. The virologist argues that, back in 2019, some covid patients were 'misdiagnosed' as evali patients. This happened because of the close similarities in the symptoms of evali and covid. To make matters worse, no nucleic acid detection kits were available at that time.
News (3)
Yang Zhanqiu challenges the U.S. to conduct antibody testing on blood samples of evali patients
As if attempting to prove his argument right, Yang Zhanqiu has challenged the U.S. to conduct antibody testing on blood samples of evali patients. He was trying to convince readers that evali was actually covid. However American scientists have done the necessary and proven that the causes and symptoms of evali are not the same as COVID-19.
The scientist challenges the US to conduct antibody testing on the blood samples of evali patients and determine if they had covid. Yang said, "If the US shares this data with the rest of the world there would be more clarity on the timeline of the epidemic".
The article of GT continues to say that the e-vaping lung illness was first reported in the U.S. in July 2019, which was months before the first official COVID case was reported in Wuhan on 1 December 2019.
When the first covid death was reported in the U.S. in 2020, nearly 3,000 evali patients had been reported.
When the first covid-related deaths are reported in the U.S. on 18 February 2020, a total of 2,807 hospitalized evali cases or deaths are reported to the USCDC in all 50 states.
News (4)
The causes of evali determined
Evali is officially known as "Electronic cigarette or Vaping product use Associated Lung Injury" or simply vaping-associated pulmonary injury. Its outbreak is known officially as 2019-2020 vaping lung illness outbreak (in short, e-vaping lung illness outbreak). It is a lowly-infectious disease among cannabis and e-cigarette smokers.
According to the article "Pulmonary Illness Related to E-cigarette use in Illinois and Wisconsin -- Preliminary Report" published in New England Journal of Medicine, evali started among users of illegal unregulated cannabis vaping products exclusively in the U.S.
These vaping products are illegal (black market) Cannabis carts or juice. It is linked to Vitamin E acetate in vaping products and vaping.
Evali is neither related to tobacco consumption nor the consumption of wild animal products.
News (5)
No tests for evali, American doctors keep evali in mind when they consider covid
There are no tests for evali, an endemic disease in the U.S. Doctors diagnosing evali have first to rule out other conditions that is not, a task further complicated by patients who are not disclosing they vape.
As covid surges to a new high in the U.S., cases of evali are increasing in 2020 among Americans who use vaping to cope with pandemic stress but not as dramatic as covid. As of 2021, there are no cases of evali reported in the U.S.
Denitza Blagev MD, a pulmonary medicine doctor at Intermountain Healthcare, said, “It’s important for clinicians to keep evali in mind as they are considering covid. Evali has a different prognosis and therapies that we can use to treat these patients, as long as we can diagnose them.”
News (6)
Connections between vaping and covid
Vaping is linked to a substantially increased risk of COVID-19 (covid in short) among teenagers and young adults, according to a new study led by researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine. The study, which was published online on 11 August 2020 in the Journal of Adolescent Health, is the first to examine connections between youth vaping and covid using U.S. population-based data collected during the pandemic.
Among young people who were tested for the virus that causes covid, the research found that those who vaped were five to seven times more likely to be infected than those who did not use e-cigarettes.
“Teens and young adults need to know that if you use e-cigarettes, you are likely at immediate risk of COVID-19 because you are damaging your lungs,” said the study’s senior author, Bonnie Halpern-Felsher, PhD, Professor of Pediatrics. News (7)
Condition of evali patients different from covid patients
Sean J. Callahan, MD, Assistant Professor of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine at University of Utah Health, said, “Patients who contract evali or covid and suffer the same levels of respiratory failure tend to have divergent outcomes.”
He added, “Patients with evali require a high level of oxygen, but still tend to do well, whereas someone with covid needing the same level of oxygen support may not do as well. Getting the diagnosis right is vital.”
News (8)
Symptoms of evali and covid are similar
In a new study published in the journal CHEST, researchers from Intermountain Healthcare and University of Utah Health looked at all evali patients at their institutions since March 2020, when PCR tests were readily available in Utah. They found a total of 12 people, who were diagnosed with evali who had a negative flu test and at least one negative covid test between 1 March and 15 May 2020.
They found that both illnesses showed similar symptoms. These symptoms include respiratory failure, gastrointestinal distress and/or ground glass opacities in the lungs.
Making accurate evali diagnoses even more difficult are patients who did not admit that they vaped, even after being asked repeatedly. In some cases, clinicians did not know someone’s true vaping history until well into the hospital course.
News (9)
Two important differences set evali apart from covid
Researchers have found two important differences that can help differentiate between evali and covid.
The first difference is covid often leads to normal or low white blood cell counts while 11 of the 12 evali patients showed an increased white blood cell count.
The second difference is patients with severe evali tend to be young, with a mean age of 30.8 years old. While covid can severely affect younger adults, it is relatively uncommon before the arrival of the Delta variant.
While treatments for covid are being evaluated, evali patients typically respond well to proven to established treatments, such as to corticosteroids.
Drs. Blagev and Callahan said this is why doctors should consider evali when evaluating patients who test negative for covid.
Dr. Blagev said, “The risk of missing other diseases that can present with similar and non-specific symptoms, such as a cough or shortness of breath, remains during this time.”
She said while it is more challenging to diagnose in the time of the covid pandemic, evali remains an important diagnosis factor to consider in patients, particularly after an initial negative covid test.
News (10)
Vaping not related to Fort Detrick, yet Chinese scientists insist the U.S. virus laboratory should be investigated
According to the GT report, in September 2019, evali cases occur in Maryland where Fort Detrick is based, adding to the Chinese scientists' suspicions of Fort Detrick. The report claims Fort Detrick has sample of SARS-CoV-2 (novel coronavirus, covi). However, the report has ignored the fact that the covi sample is only introduced to the laboratory when it re-opened in March 2020 to study covi.
Fort Detrick was closed due to the failure of its steam sterilization plant from July 2019 to late March 2020. During this period, a new chemical system was subsequently used for its experiments. The wastewater in the chamber was treated.
The U.S. CDC approved the third and fourth-level biosafety laboratories of the Fort Detrick Army Institute of Infectious Diseases on 27 March 2020 to fully resume research on infectious viruses. The closure of Fort Detrick has nothing to do with the 2019-2020 vaping lung illness outbreak.
Since the American scientists and doctors have determined that evali is caused by the consumption of black market cannabis, evali is not covid and Fort Detrick is not the origin of COVID-19.
Refs: https://www.ibtimes.sg/covid-was-us-before-wuhan-facts-evali-2019-cases-were-suppressed-china-59299, https://www.globaltimes.cn/page/202107/1230143.shtml, https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8007202/, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2019%E2%80%932020_vaping_lung_illness_outbreak, https://med.stanford.edu/news/all-news/2020/08/vaping-linked-to-covid-19-risk-in-teens-and-young-adults.html, https://www.abc4.com/gtu/gtu-sponsor/why-vaping-injuries-are-climbing/, https://staygate.blogspot.com/2021/06/fort-detrick-closed-in-july-2019-due-to.html
See also: https://staygate.blogspot.com/2021/08/ccp-and-us-re-explode-information-war.html, https://staygate.blogspot.com/2021/08/ccp-blames-their-covid-wave-on-india.html, https://staygate.blogspot.com/2021/08/the-updated-republican-report-on.html
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