With an average onset period of 6 days to two weeks, cases of VAPI have been happening since 2015-2016. Then, the number of reported VAPI cases increased greatly starting in May-June of 2019 (Q2). But only after the CDC released its VAPI case definitions, when doctors looked back at old cases from years ago to see if they matched the case definitions from today (and many did).
In other words, all of the VAPI cases are not from 2019, quite a few are from long before vit E acetate was even sold. Additionally, around 25% of the sick people only vaped nic carts, no THC carts at all, so they also didn’t vape vit E acetate. Also, according to the FDA’s current figures, only about 39.6% of the 180 samples tested from sick people had vit E acetate. Finally, vit E acetate has never been found in all samples, it’s just not a common factor (the only common factor is the hardware).
Vit E acetate has been sold by the 55 gallon drum for carts since late 2018 in LA. And so far there have been tens of millions of carts sold with vit E acetate, and only a tiny, teeny fraction of people who could have vaped it got sick.
In other words, the numbers and facts about vit E acetate use doesn’t match up with the spike in VAPI illnesses. If it did, the illness would have started in Los Angeles by early January 2019.
Those facts and figures, plus the Mayo Clinic study, seem to very strongly suggest it’s not caused by vit E acetate. But, because vit E acetate is a new thing and it makes for great click-bait, the news media ran with it even though NY state, the CDC, and the FDA never said they think vit E acetate is the cause, or even part of the cause.
The CDC and FDA still don’t know what’s causing VAPI, but one thing is pretty clear: it’s extreemly unlikely to be from vit E acetate causing lipoid pneumonia.
The assumption and claim made by many people that VAPI is caused by vit E oil through exogenous lipoid pneumonia was more a hair on fire response, not based on facts. It was due to poor reporting from people like David Downs at Leafly, the NY Times and other organizations.
I think Magisterchemist may be onto something regarding coils and batteries. It makes sense because those would also affect nic only users. I can’t think of another common factor, except for some unknown toxic chemical in all samples of THC and nic carts.