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Public Health

What we should be thankful for: A CORONA SELF HELP GUIDE

The last couple of weeks were probably some of the strangest times in most of our lives. Only few of us have seen such a massive restriction of travel and social life prior to the coronavirus. Even as an aviation geek and frequent traveler, the grounding of entire fleets of planes is something I haven’t even seen in the aftermath of 9/11.

Physical business meetings, conferences, or sports events seem to be off for at least the next six to eight weeks. It is probably only a matter of time until most countries close down gyms and pubs. This will not only be a challenge for the economy but also for our social lives. Keeping up morale and mental health will be important and I figured out that regular but very casual video chats with friends and colleagues (over a drink) can help a lot to ease the anxieties built up by media hysteria and the feeling of not being in control of the situation (helplessness).

So while we are all trying to adjust to a new reality for the next 6-10 weeks there are also reasons why I am very happy that this crisis happens in 2020 and not in 2000. There are many innovations that happened in this new millennium we should be extremely thankful for.

First and foremost we should of course be thankful for all the nurses and doctors helping patients at the frontlines of the outbreak. This will be some challenging months for all healthcare professionals and they should receive all necessary support.

And before diving into medical innovation and the search for a vaccine let’s look who else is helping us to social distance, self-isolate, and flatten the curve.

Remote working tools such as Zoom, Asana, or Google Suite have already revolutionized the workplace. Most meetings can be switched to a video call. So at least the knowledge economy or advocacy jobs such ours can still keep being productive. But obviously there’s also life beyond work and that needs to be taken care of (including child care).

Thanks to grocery delivery services such AmazonFresh and Ocado I was able to build up a good amount of supplies of canned and dried foods and bathroom supplies even without having to fight for the last products in some nearly empty supermarkets. For the next few weeks we have regular deliveries of fresh foods so I won’t run fully on Mac n Cheese until corona is defeated. 

Food delivery services make it even easier to work from home, still create value, and being fed by Papa John’s, Nando’s, or our local Indian restaurant. Domino’s Pizza went even further and just sent me an email announcing ‘Contact Free Delivery’ in the UK and Ireland:

“By introducing Contact Free Delivery, we believe that we will give our customers peace of mind when ordering a Domino’s, while also protecting our delivery drivers.

You can select a Contact Free Delivery at the checkout on our app or website when placing your order. Your driver will call you when they arrive to agree where you want your food left. Once the order has been placed in the agreed location, the driver will stay at least two meters away while you collect your order.  To ensure the service is truly contact free, all Contact Free Delivery orders must be pre-paid online or over the phone.”

Having taken care of all the pizza and toilet paper I need for the foreseeable future it is now time to look at what entertainment needs will be important. Netflix and Amazon stream directly into my living and as my colleague Maria pointed out “It’s a plague with WiFi”. So no need to go to the defunct video rental store but be excited to stream all seasons of Buffy (and if this goes longer than expected even Angel) directly into your home.

My gym just emailed me that they had a case of COVID-19 and they are currently shut down for deep cleaning. Good that Kelli and Daniel of Fitness Blender have over 500 free workout videos on YouTube. Get your Yoga Mats out!

But there’s only so much of Buffy and HIIT you can take a day. Fortunately video games (which I haven’t paid attention to for a long time) are now mainly also being streamed or downloaded. My social media friends recommended me Red Dead Redemption 2, The Witcher 3, and Europa Universalis IV (probably too complicated for me). So I think we are all set here as well!

Now to one of the greatest inventions of the past decades: Online pharmacies! Coming from Germany and having worked in health policy I am always puzzled how much vested interest fights against online pharmacies and e-prescriptions. In times of self-isolation and social distancing these two words sound like music to my ears. 

I was able to reorder and stock up all sorts of prescription only drugs such as asthma medicine, proton pump inhibitors, and antibiotics without even leaving my flat – and all of this LEGALLY (disclaimer: I do have asthma)! You just have an online consultation with a doctor or take a quiz and receive an electronic prescription. This is definitely a massive relief on the already challenged health system as patients don’t flood clinics just to ask for prescriptions and pharmacists can focus on producing more sanitizers.

Most of these above mentioned services and companies did not even exist two decades ago. Thanks to innovation and competition entrepreneurs carved out these new ways of servicing customers. This is amazing and while it might have been a mere gimmick some weeks ago, everything from videoconferencing to electronic prescriptions makes this crisis much more manageable. We should be thankful for that!

Obviously there are vulnerable groups and many people will suffer heavily from the virus. That’s why we need more innovation. There’s already a race to the first vaccine and other pharmaceutical companies are working on repurposing antivirals that are being used for instance in fighting the Ebola Virus. Some studies suggest that certain Malaria medication might be helpful to boost the immune system of severely sick corona patients. These are often recently discovered drugs that require a lot of time and capital to be developed. 

We should be thankful for innovation in medicine and acknowledge that these breakthroughs are only possible thanks to keen researchers and a risky appetite for innovation shown by the private sector. This is why we at the Consumer Choice Center keep fighting (from our laptops) for choice, innovation, and evidence-based policy making. We will benefit in the next crisis from it (a child care robot included)!

The Consumer Choice Center is the consumer advocacy group supporting lifestyle freedom, innovation, privacy, science, and consumer choice. The main policy areas we focus on are digital, mobility, lifestyle & consumer goods, and health & science.

The CCC represents consumers in over 100 countries across the globe. We closely monitor regulatory trends in Ottawa, Washington, Brussels, Geneva and other hotspots of regulation and inform and activate consumers to fight for #ConsumerChoice. Learn more at consumerchoicecenter.org

Fight Viruses by releasing the Gene Scissors: What is Gene Editing and why should we get excited about it?

Understanding gene editing with comic book figures

Humanity is currently facing a huge challenge imposed by the Coronavirus. Borders are being shut down, planes grounded, and factories closed. At the same time, scientists and public health professionals are working on tests, treatments, and vaccines to soon provide a medical response. Coping with corona might be one of the largest tests humans have faced in the past decades but it won’t be the last virus we need to defeat. It is time to embrace bioscience and allow more research and applications of genetic alteration methods.

For the layman, all this technobabble about mutagenesis and genetic engineering is difficult to comprehend and it took me personally a good amount of reading to start grasping what different methods exist and how these can massively improve our quality of life.

Let’s first look at the four most common ways to alter the genes of a plant or animal: 

  • Dr. Xaver – Mutations per se just happen regularly in nature – This is how some amino acids ended up being humans a billion years later. Biological evolution can only happen thanks to mutations. Mutations in nature happen randomly or are caused by exogenous factors such as radiation (e.g. sun). For the comic book readers among us, X-men have mutations that (in most cases) occurred randomly.
  • The Hulk – Mutation through exposure (mutagens): One of the most common ways to manipulate seeds is exposing them to radiation and hoping for positive mutations (e.g. higher pest resistance). This method is very common since the 1950s and a very inaccurate shotgun approach aiming to make crops more resistant or palatable. It requires thousands of attempts to get a positive result. This method is widely used and legal in nearly every country. In our comic book universe, the Hulk is a good example of mutations caused by radiation.
  • Spiderman – Genetically Modified Organisms (transgenic GMO): This often-feared procedure of creating GMOs is based on inserting the genes of one species into the genes of another. In most cases, GMO crops have been injected with a protein of another plant or bacteria that makes the crop grow faster or be more resistant towards certain diseases. Other examples can be seen in crossing salmon with tilapia fish which makes the salmon grow twice as fast. Spiderman being bitten by a spider and suddenly being able to climb skyscrapers due to his enhanced spider-human (transgenic) DNA is an example from the comicverse. 
  • GATTACA/Wrath of Khan – Gene Editing (the scissors): The latest and most precise way of altering an organism’s genes is so-called Gene Editing. In contrast to traditional GMOs, genes are not being implanted from another organism but changed within the organism due to a precise method of either deactivating certain genes or adding them. 

This can be even done in grown humans that are alive, which is a blessing for everyone who suffers from genetic disorders. We are able to “repair” genes in live organisms. Gene editing is also thousands of times more accurate than just bombarding seeds with radiation. Some applied examples are deactivating the gene responsible for generating gluten in wheat: The result is gluten-free wheat. There are several methods that achieve this. One of the most popular ones these days is the so-called CRISPR Cas-9. These ‘scissors’ are usually reprogrammed bacteria that transmit the new gene information or deactivate defunct or unwanted genes. Many science fiction novels and movies show a future in which we can deactivate genetic defects and cure humans from terrible diseases. Some examples of stories in which CRISPR-like techniques have been used are movies such as GATTACA, Star Trek’s Wrath of Khan, or the Expanse series in which gene editing plays a crucial role in growing crops in space.

What does this have to do with the Coronavirus?

Synthetic biologists have started using CRISPR to synthetically create parts of the coronavirus in an attempt to launch a vaccine against this lung disease and be able to mass-produce it very quickly. In combination with computer simulations and artificial intelligence, the best design for such a vaccine is calculated on a computer and then synthetically created. This speeds up vaccine development and cuts it from years to merely months. Regulators and approval bodies have shown that in times of crisis they can also rapidly approve new testing and vaccination procedures which usually require years of back and forth with agencies such as the FDA?

CRISPR also allows the ‘search’ for specific genes, also genes of a virus. This helped researchers to build fast and simple testing procedures to test patients for corona.

In the long term, gene editing might allow us to increase the immunity of humans by altering our genes and making us more resistant to viruses and bacteria. 

This won’t be the last crisis

While the coronavirus seems to really test our modern society, we also need to be aware that this won’t be the last pathogen that has the potential to kill millions. If we are unlucky, corona might mutate quickly and become harder to fight. The next dangerous virus, fungus, or bacteria is probably around the corner. Hence we need to embrace the latest inventions of biotechnology and not block genetic research and the deployment of its findings.

Right now a lot of red tape and even outright bans are standing between lifesaving innovations such as CRISPR and patients around the world. We need to rethink our hostility towards genetic engineering and embrace it. To be frank: We are in a constant struggle to fight newly occurring diseases and need to be able to deploy state of the art human answers to this.

What we should be thankful for: A corona self help guide.

What we should now be thankful for: A corona self help guide

DIE WELTGESUNDHEITSORGANISATION VERSAGT MAL WIEDER: DIESMAL CORONAVIRUS

Letzte Woche, während des Weltwirtschaftsforums in Davos, konnte man den Generaldirektor der Weltgesundheitsorganisation (WHO) Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus noch lachend und entspannt über die Davoser Promenade schlendern sehen. Zu diesem Zeitpunkt sah die WHO noch keine internationale Gefahr in dem chinesischen Coronavirus. Trotz Berichten aus China von rapide ansteigenden Ansteckungen und Unklarheit darüber, wie offen die kommunistische Regierung in Peking mit den wirklichen Zahlen umgeht, gab sich der Chef der Genfer Behörde entspannt.

Mittlerweile hat die WHO ihre ursprüngliche Einschätzung der Lage revidiert. So wird nun weltweit von einem hohen Risiko ausgegangen. Geschichte scheint sich hier wieder einmal zu wiederholen, schon 2014 reagierte die WHO mit monaten Verzögerung beim Ausbruch des tödlichen Ebolavirus in Westafrika.

Die wichtigste Aufgabe der WHO sollte in der internationalen Bekämpfung von Epidemien gesehen werden. Doch leider verbringt sie zu viel Zeit mit Konferenzen und thematischen Auseinandersetzungen in ganz anderen Bereichen.

Nächste Woche tagt der geschäftsführende Vorstand der WHO vom 3. bis 8. Februar in Genf. Anstelle sich nun wirklich auf die wichtigsten Themen zu konzentrieren, wie zum Beispiel eine zeitnahe und fehlerfreie Antwort auf den sich ausbreitenden Coronavirus, zeigt die Tagesordnung dieser Sitzung, wie die Behörde Zeit und Steuergelder mit peripheren Themen verschwendet.

Die Tagesordnung verbringt eine ganze erste Seite mit Reformvorschlägen für Gesundheitssysteme hin zu universellen Krankenkassen. Solche Themen sollten zwar eher Teil von Innenpolitik sein, die WHO scheint aber ideologische Grabenkämpfe wichtiger zu finden als die globale Bekämpfung von Killerviren.

Auf den hinteren Seiten der Tagesordnung findet sich dann neben “gesundem Altern” und der “Renovierung der WHO Zentrale” auch ein Krisenplan für globale Pandemien.

Bevor es zu Krisenbewältigung auf der Agenda kommt, wird es wahrscheinlich erstmal einige Tage und die Bekämpfung von Patenten und geistigem Eigentum gehen. In den letzten Jahren hat sich die WHO zu einem zentralen Sprachrohr gegen Innovation und Privatwirtschaft gemausert. Die Verwässerung und langsame Abschaffung von Patenten auf Medikamenten sieht die WHO als bestes Mittel um steigende Gesundheitskosten zu verhindern. Dass Einfuhrzölle und Verbrauchssteuern auf Medikamente gerade in Schwellenländern oft 40% des Preises ausmachen, erwähnt die WHO lieber nicht. Allein in China geben Patienten über 5 Milliarden Euro pro Jahr nur für Zölle auf importierte Medikamente aus. Gerade in Zeiten eines massiven Virusausbruchs sollten solche unethischen Steuern in Frage gestellt werden.

Es war auch die Privatwirtschaft die parallel vier unterschiedliche Ebolaimpfstoffe in den letzten Jahren schnell und effektiv entwickelt hat. Ähnliches wird nun beim Coronavirus benötigt. Die Strategie der WHO Anreize bei der Medikamentenentwicklung zu entfernen könnte extrem negative Auswirkungen für die Weltbevölkerung haben.

Es wäre dem WHO Vorstand zu raten, sich weniger mit der Verschönerung seiner Büroräume auszusetzen, sondern eher mit der sofortigen Antwort auf massive Bedrohungen für die weltweite Gesundheit und globale Handelsströme, wie Ebola und das Coronavirus. Mit einem Budget von 2 Milliarden Euro pro Jahr und über 10% davon für Reisekosten veranschlagt, muss sich die WHO die berechtigte Frage stellen, ob die Behörde nicht massiv geschrumpft und auf ihre Kernaufgaben ausgerichtet werden muss.

Selbst als Befürworter des schlanken Staates sollte man die Notwendigkeit eines internationalen Koordinierungs- und Aktivierungsorgans im Bereich transnationale Epidemien sehen. Leider kommt die WHO dieser Aufgabe nur wenig nach.

Originally published here.

The Consumer Choice Center is the consumer advocacy group supporting lifestyle freedom, innovation, privacy, science, and consumer choice. The main policy areas we focus on are digital, mobility, lifestyle & consumer goods, and health & science.

The CCC represents consumers in over 100 countries across the globe. We closely monitor regulatory trends in Ottawa, Washington, Brussels, Geneva and other hotspots of regulation and inform and activate consumers to fight for #ConsumerChoice. Learn more at consumerchoicecenter.org

The World Health Organization fails us again: This time Coronavirus

Fred Roeder, Health Economist and Managing Director of the Consumer Choice Center

Last week when visiting Davos during the World Economic Forum, Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General of the World Health Organization, casually walked down the main street of the small alpine town without a worry in his face. At that moment, his organization saw  no international threat in the Chinese-originating coronavirus. This was despite worrying reports from China and questionable legitimacy of the official numbers provided by the Chinese Communist government.

Since then, the WHO has apologized and corrected their initial assessment. The virus is now seen as a high risk to the East Asian region and globally. 

History is repeating itself once more During the Ebola crisis in West Africa in 2014, it took the WHO months to finally declare an emergency. They were too tied up in fighting non-communicable diseases. 

The most important task, and the founding reason, of the WHO should be combating international diseases and coordination of rapid crisis responses. But unfortunately the Geneva-based agency spends much of its time with topics such as road safety, secondhand smoke, vaping, and the renovation of their own offices.

Next week the body’s executive board will convene from February 3rd-8th. Instead of revamping their agenda and fully focusing on how to contain the coronavirus, the current agenda prioritizes many other points before dealing with an international crisis response.

While our taxes should be spent on keeping us safe from this virus, the WHO’s board will instead spend the first couple of days discussing ideological ideas of universal healthcare reforms in emerging markets and how to limit patents of pharmaceutical companies. This is apparently more important for an agency that spends 10% of its 2 billion annual budget than figuring out how to effectively combat killer viruses. 

Once you scroll down the agenda of the meeting, you will finally find crisis response next to topics such as ‘aging in health’ and ‘renovation of the WHO Headquarters’.

So instead of putting the very real and scary threat of the Coronavirus first, the board members will prioritize how to limit incentives for the private sector to come up with treatments and vaccinations for the virus. Scrapping patents and limiting intellectual property rights are key pillars of the WHO’s priorities these days. Limiting patents is seen as a solution to curb health costs in emerging markets. For the international governmental organization, this seems to be an easier way than actually calling out their member states who often increase drug prices by 10-40% through import taxes and sales taxes paid by patients.

Chinese patients alone pay over 5 billion dollars a year on tariffs for drugs they import. In times of a massive health crisis in China, the WHO should urge the Chinese government to drop all of these tariffs momentarily.

After the Ebola outbreak in 2014, the private sector quickly reacted and several companies developed and delivered Ebola-vaccines at the same time. Now we need a similarly quick response for the coronavirus. Therefore, the WHO should not limit the innovative potential of the pharmaceutical industry but encourage them to invest in finding vaccines.

The coronavirus has already taken too many human lives and the situation will worsen. International trade and the global economy can also easily take a massive hit from a worsening situation. Instead of debating how to make the WHO’s offices better looking for natural light, its board should focus 100% on how to contain and combat the coronavirus. That’s priority number one.

Over and over, we see how the WHO fails to respond in an accurate and timely manner to such pandemics. It is high time for the agency to focus on its core mission: Protecting us from trans-national diseases.

How a coronavirus epidemic in China could ripple through the global economy

An international outbreak of respiratory illness sparked by a novel coronavirus has spread from its origins in central China to at least 11 countries, with more than 1,200 confirmed cases — including a presumed case in Canada — and over 40 deaths.

Like previous outbreaks, including the SARS virus 17 years ago, the flu-like disease poses a risk to economies around the world as fear and confusion lead to abrupt changes in behaviour, decreased economic activity and a ripple effect across sectors that threatens everything from productivity to consumer prices.

The Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome pandemic of 2003 cost the Chinese economy up to US$20 billion, according to the Asian Development Bank, as travel warnings and transit shutdowns discouraged consumption, foreign tourists stayed away and local residents stopped going out.

“The travel and tourism sectors were most obviously hit, although that ripples through the entire economy,” said Richard Smith, a professor of health economics at the University of Exeter Medical School.

“But many effects are short-lived during an outbreak as once the panic is over people go back to business as usual.”

Chinese authorities clamped down on mass transit during the SARS outbreak, hampering commutes, shopping runs and social outings. The national securities regulatory commission closed stock and futures markets in Shanghai and Shenzhen for two weeks to prevent viral transmission. And Beijing ordered movie theatres, internet cafes and other venues to shut down temporarily while hotels, conference centres, restaurants and galleries saw visitors almost disappear completely.

China’s response to the current crisis appears to be swifter, and the disease less virulent, but the country now boasts a far more extensive high-speed rail network than it did in 2003, and its economy is six times larger, upping the risk of transmission and the repercussions of an epidemic.

“China is the engine of the global economy, churning out goods,” said German health economist Fred Roeder.

Its critical role in international shipping may be thrown into disarray as authorities begin to hold back some ships from entering the port at Wuhan, a key hub on the Yangtze River.

“If they cannot leave it creates huge delays in the supply chain and value chain of businesses all across the world,” Roeder said. “It could actually hit the latest generation of smartphone if ports are shutting down.”

Manufacturing could also feel the crunch as supply chains stall, he said.

Roeder has felt firsthand the disruptive power of a pandemic. In the summer of 2003 the teenage Berliner was eagerly gearing up for a United Nations youth conference that would take him to Taipei, but the event was cancelled a few days beforehand due to SARS.

The epidemic also sparked layoffs and time away from work. At one point Singapore Airlines asked its 6,600 cabin crew to take unpaid leave. Children stayed home from school, prompting more parents to shirk their job duties and further reducing productivity, said AltaCorp Capital analyst Chris Murray.

“I was losing guys left, right and centre as people were quarantined,” recalled Murray, based in Toronto — the epicentre of the SARS pandemic outside of Asia. The disease infected 438 Canadians in total and caused 44 deaths in the Toronto area.

The economic damage culminated with World Health Organization’s one-week travel advisory for the city in April 2003, costing the Canadian economy an estimated $5.25 billion that year.

The outbreak of H1N1, or swine flu, in 2009 also sparked work “dislocations,” Murray said. “It went from, ‘Maybe it’ll be okay,’ to sheer panic.”

Freelancers and gig economy workers such as musicians or ride-hail drivers may feel the pinch more acutely, since they can’t rely on a steady wage when demand shrinks.

“It’s something that unfortunately has happened before in a similar way and it tends to affect areas like retail,” said Carolyn Wilkins, senior deputy governor of the Bank of Canada, said this week.

“People don’t go out, they don’t fly in planes, they don’t do as much tourism to the affected areas,” she said.

The fallout makes workers ranging from servers to wholesale bakers to non-unionized hotel staff more vulnerable. Meanwhile spending or investment plans by larger companies may have to be delayed, said Roeder.

It is not clear how lethal the new coronavirus is or even whether it is as dangerous as the ordinary flu, which kills about 3,500 people every year in Canada alone.

Originally published here.

The Consumer Choice Center is the consumer advocacy group supporting lifestyle freedom, innovation, privacy, science, and consumer choice. The main policy areas we focus on are digital, mobility, lifestyle & consumer goods, and health & science.

The CCC represents consumers in over 100 countries across the globe. We closely monitor regulatory trends in Ottawa, Washington, Brussels, Geneva and other hotspots of regulation and inform and activate consumers to fight for #ConsumerChoice. Learn more at consumerchoicecenter.org

We must resist Public Health England’s brave new world

We must resist Public Health England’s brave new world

In a remarkable authoritarian parting shot as she left her post as Chief Medical Officer, Dame Sally Davies published a report entitled Time to Solve Childhood Obesity, which was warmly welcomed by Health Secretary Matt Hancock.

The report’s recommendations would create a positively dystopian world. Public Health England want to outright ban eating on public transport. Inflated VAT rates would make simple food and drinks purchases seem rather more extravagant than before.

There would be no more junk food ads, and buying fast food would become an ordeal and a luxury. But if the government opts to follow the report’s recommendations – which is a real possibility, whoever wins the election – this Brave New World could soon become a reality.

The supposed childhood obesity epidemic has been slowly but surely taking over British public health discourse. It began around 2005, with Jamie Oliver’s televisual lip service, and eventually resulted in George Osborne’s sugar tax eleven years later.

With over one in five English 10 and 11-year-olds suffering from obesity according to the latest available data from the NHS, the government has understandably set alarm bells ringing.

The domineering, restrictive approach being proposed by Public Health England, however, brings to light some deep-seated issues.

The key one has to do with individual freedoms. Radical measures like taxing ‘unhealthy’ foods, banning ads and enforcing plain packaging would fail to tackle childhood obesity, while also harshly affecting adults and their personal choices.

This kind of nannyism is remarkably cross-party, differing only in degree. While Jeremy Corbyn’s support for sin taxes and junk food ad bans comes as no surprise, it is quite baffling to witness Tories persistently meddling with individual choices too.

Considering the party’s ideological roots, you would expect the Conservatives to be more mindful of the dangers this approach poses for the fundamental freedom to choose.

Plain packaging of tobacco products and the ban on plastic straws signalled a drastic shift away from core Conservative values, and it seems that things are only getting worse.

Public support appears dishearteningly high for such approaches. A YouGov poll from a few months ago showed that 55% of the public believe we need additional taxation on unhealthy foods and drinks. Alarmingly, the figure among Conservative voters is 54%.

The poll also found that nearly two thirds of British adults would be in favour of banning junk food TV ads before the 9pm watershed, with only 20% opposed. Almost three quarters support restrictions on food advertising on YouTube and social media.

In this context, ad bans and harsh authoritarian restrictions are seeming less and less draconian. It would appear that infringing on individual choices is politically profitable in Britain today.

It is little wonder, then, that the Conservative party continues to err on the side of greater state interference, despite the ideological mismatch it causes.

Whether we will truly find ourselves waking up one day to be greeted by Public Health England’s brave and healthy new world remains unclear.

Back in July, Boris Johnson vowed to review sin taxes and put an end once and for all to the “continuing creeping of the nanny state”, but since then, solid commitments or steps in that direction have not been forthcoming.

Perhaps, the nanny state seems appealing to many at the moment because we have not yet experienced fully-fledged nannyism in action.

If the current trend continues, we may find out by 2024 whether following Public Health England’s programme of taxes, ad bans and plain packaging will be enough to fight childhood obesity, or if yet more restrictions on choice will be on their way.

Originally published here.

The Consumer Choice Center is the consumer advocacy group supporting lifestyle freedom, innovation, privacy, science, and consumer choice. The main policy areas we focus on are digital, mobility, lifestyle & consumer goods, and health & science.

The CCC represents consumers in over 100 countries across the globe. We closely monitor regulatory trends in Ottawa, Washington, Brussels, Geneva and other hotspots of regulation and inform and activate consumers to fight for #ConsumerChoice. Learn more at consumerchoicecenter.org

As vape panic roils, flurry of lawsuits against Juul has begun

Inhale vapor. Exhale cash. 

The health risks around vaping are so unknown, and there is so much money in the pockets of e-cigarette makers like Juul lawyers are greasing up their hands for the reach-in. 

Here are some e-cig lawsuits already filed: 

A Kansas dude who says he goes through five pods a week.

A Connecticut man who says false advertising led him to start using Juuls, which he says cause him chest pain. 

A New Jersey dad who bought Juuls for his 14-year-old son, who now coughs and vomits. 

Dozens of lawsuits, all against Juul. Many of these lawsuits say that Juul’s happy, slick ads misled them into thinking Juuls were safe, when in fact they’ve lead to health problems. 

The concequenses of vaping are unclear at this point, and it may be decades before we know actual long-term effects. Scientists are studying links between vaping and lung diesase, seizure and addiction. 

Originally published here.

For more facts about vaping, read our Research on the Myths and Facts on Vaping: What Policymakers Should Know

Juul’s Latest Play to Survive Washington, D.C.: Win Over Black Lawmakers

“It’s about time someone’s reaching out to the communities that need the most help,” said Jeff Stier, a senior fellow at the Consumer Choice Center and a leading vaping advocate, in an interview with The Daily Beast.

But Stier acknowledged that, beyond potential public health benefits, there’s also a political upside to the strategy.

“If you’re making arguments like I often make about consumer choice, those arguments on the e-cig front don’t always resonate with the people who represent a disproportionate number of smokers,” Stier said. “So you may not make the same argument to Rand Paul that you would to a congressman in the African-American community.”

Read more here

Sweets, crisps and sugary drinks should have plain packaging, says think tank

In response to the report, Maria Chaplia, media associate at the Consumer Choice Center, said: “The British obesity problem is rooted in the lack of physical activity, not in consumption preferences. According to Public Health England, physical activity in the UK declined by 24% since the 1960s. By pushing forward the plain packaging of foods, its proponents are simply shooting in the wrong direction.

“The most unacceptable part of the IPPR’s plain packaging scheme is that it stems from the assumption that it knows what choices are better for individuals. Though framed to be in the public interest, this is highly pretentious. Not only does this belief undermine the ability of consumers to decide for themselves, but it also blocks their access to the information about the products they buy and consume. Information is dispersed through branding. Plain packaging is aimed to make our life plain of choices.”

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