Joe Gitchell

"It seems to be a law of nature, inflexible and inexorable, that those who will not risk cannot win." John Paul Jones #USPassportQuotes

#HealthComm #SciComm Nerds may find this summary of a recent paper on relative risk perceptions of e-cigarettes of interest. #EVALI @DearPandemic @EIDGeek @unbiasedscipod @jeremyfaust @amyfaithho @jonathanstea @CaulfieldTim @critica_life @angie_rasmussen @meganranney @MatthewFacciani @kmpanthagani @LeslieBienen @mikepesko @JonathanFoulds news-medical.net/news/20260504/…

2/2 link to talk: youtu.be/ngdZvwr5gA0?si… via @YouTube

No specific mentions of nicotine and tobacco research, but goodness does @Musa_alGharbi ring some bells with this engaging and #BrutalTruths-laden talk at @HdxAcademy West. How Researcher Homogeneity Distorts Knowledge Production | Musa al-Gharbi 1/2

@JMacNYC @jkelovuori

@jkelovuori @jgitchell Of course not -- even though it underscored the main thesis of the piece and impacts vastly more people than any other drug/issue mentioned. Also, HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA:

Gonna read the bejeebers out of this one.

@grayjaynine Thank you for making it so easy, Janine. 🙏

#ActualWinning Follow @grayjaynine if you appreciate getting less wrong.

What odds could you have gotten in 1991 on “Magic Johnson will still be alive in 2026 and also the most jovial, healthy looking motherfucker in every room he enters.”

Thank you @MOates_ @Clive_Bates and @TattanBirch

@DrJMarine Amazing!! And in the circle of life file, check out fox kits!

Bluebirds have been productive. Hatching started today!

Please bring a principled counterargument to @wilksopinion. He'll wait.

TFW you get to work with so many talented, savvy professionals who are trying to improve public welfare, even tho essentially no one agrees with what we're trying to do. #JohnStuartMill (ht @HdxAcademy @JonHaidt) "Cherish those who seek the Truth; Doubt those who have found it." - Voltaire (TY, @ConscienHealth, as ever!) #gratitude

FDA Nerds will already be gobbling this up, but for those who don't subscribe already to @Bloomberg, I'm hooking you up with one of my 5 monthly gift links (on the 4th of the month, even!). Must-read for @foodanddruglaw #FDLIAnnual attendees.

@jkelovuori No. But gift-link, engaged! You will dig, Jukka. bloomberg.com/news/features/…

@jgitchell Nicotine mentioned?

Big @HdxAcademy Energy. Let's get less wrong, together.

@recoqnitions @JunkScience @LanceChurchill You might find this 'stack from @GidMK of interest: open.substack.com/pub/gidmk/p/do…

@JunkScience @LanceChurchill 6. We should not compare the cancer risk from vaping with no use. We should compare the cancer risk from vaping with the cancer risk from smoking cigarettes.

Behavior nannies try to link vaping with cancer. What you need to know: 1. Vaping (like many other everyday activities) includes exposures to chemicals that, at very high/atypical/unrealistic exposures, have been linked with cancer in either humans and/or lab animals. For example, @grok estimates benzene exposures among heavy e-cig users at orders of magnitude below what was the threshold for cancer risk among mid-20th century industrial workers. 2. But typical exposures to vaping chemicals are much lower and so not likely to be carcinogenic. 3. E-cigs have been around for about 20 years. There are an estimated 18 million e-cig users. There have been two case reports in the US of oral HPV-negative squamous cell cancer (rare in young people) in young and heavy e-cig users. But these are anecdotal and causation has not been established. 4. But despite decades of use and tens of millions of users, there is no epidemiology associating e-cigs with cancer. That is not to say that cancer from e-cigs hasn't or can't happen, but if it does it is so rare that no one can detect it. If it does happen, it is probably confined to heavy use among the genetically vulnerable. 5. Finally, risks and reality may be different for users of black market e-cigs vs. FDA-approved products. Black market products may contain anything. washingtonpost.com/wellness/2026/…

An example of an important and politically fraught challenge that defies easy solutions.