The CDC’s EVALI screwup

Making a mistake is one thing. Failing to correct it is worse.

The world-renowned Centers for Disease Control and Prevention describes itself as “the nation’s leading science-based, data-driven, service organization that protects the public’s health.” It pledges to “base all public health decisions on the highest quality scientific data.”

So why has the CDC refused to admit it was wrong about the deadly disease that it misnamed EVALI?

EVALI stands for “E-cigarette or Vaping use-Associated Lung Injury.” The CDC says that 2,807 people were hospitalized and 68 died from the 2019 EVALI outbreak. But there is no evidence–none at all— that anyone got sick with EVALI from using e-cigarettes.

This is much more than a question of semantics. The CDC’s reluctance to rename EVALI and correct its communication around the disease has almost surely discouraged smokers from switching from combustible cigarettes to e-cigarettes, which are much less dangerous. No one has died from vaping e-cigarettes; smoking causes about 480,000 deaths a year.

The CDC’s error has spread the idea that e-cigarettes cause EVALI. On its website, Johns Hopkins Medicine warns that there has been “an outbreak of lung injuries and deaths associated with vaping.” Yale Medicine says “ the primary risk…