Vaping illness? The only vaping illbess I remember was from the counterfeit weed carts cut with Vitamin E Acetate as a thickener. I ended up with one of those Once, a single hit (it was a blinker) and my chest hurt for days. Tasted like burnt plastic, but not in a "I didn't prime this right so it tastes like acrolene" way.

[–] penitentkulak@hexbear.net 16 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago) (1 children)

I remember there were stories of hospitalized young adults with pneumonia who hadn't use weed carts, only were using legit tobacco vapes. Could be they just didn't admit to using illegal carts of course.

Edit: here's a research article, there was a small CDC study early in 2019 where all the patients had vitamin E in their lungs, but a larger study later in 2019 only had 86% of patients reporting cannabis use, and another in 2020 where they only found vitamin e in 49% of patient samples.

[–] ArsonButCute@lemmy.dbzer0.com 7 points 5 days ago

Thank you, I have some reading to do 🫡

[–] SevenSkalls@hexbear.net 16 points 5 days ago

Ya it was that thing. It is pretty weird that it popped up in September 2019, a few months right before the pandemic. Not saying the Vitamin E Acetate vape thing wasn't a problem, as I don't vape, but I wonder how often it masked a different lung disease, in Covid.

[–] Abracadaniel@hexbear.net 8 points 5 days ago

yeah the vaping thing is a closed case and not relevant to the question of COVID origins.