The Wall Street Journal - 20.09.2019

THE WALL STREET JOURNAL. ** Friday, September 20, 2019 |A

U.S. NEWS

licit products, said Mitch

Zeller, director of the FDA’s

Center for Tobacco Products.

The OCI has been involved

from the beginning of the

FDA’s investigation and is fo-

cusing on the product supply

chain and attempting to iden-

tify what is making people

sick, according to Mr. Zeller.

“We are in desperate need

of facts and answers to ques-

tions,” Mr. Zeller said. “Getting

to the bottom of these respira-

tory illnesses is a top priority.”

The FDA is also encourag-

ing the public to submit de-

tailed reports of any health or

products issues through their

online safety-reporting portal.

The FDA and the CDC have

previously warned consumers

not to purchase illicit vaping

products or modify the prod-

ucts that they have purchased

legally.

As the investigation contin-

ues, Jennifer Layden, chief

medical officer at the Illinois

Department of Public Health,

says that the department has

had increased success in con-

ducting interviews with pa-

tients to determine what prod-

ucts they have been using. The

department is also asking any-

one in the state who has re-

cently vaped to fill out an

anonymous form about their

vaping habits to help aid the

investigation.

A large percentage of ill-

nesses have been in young

people, reflecting the popular-

ity of vaping among youth.

New data released this week

show that the rate of teens

vaping nicotine has grown

sharply again in the past year,

suggesting that marketing and

sales restrictions meant to

curb youth use haven’t been

substantial enough.

Two-thirds of the patients

are between 18 and 34 years

old, and 16% are under the age

of 18, according to the CDC.

More than half are under 25

years old. Nearly three-fourths

of the patients who have de-

veloped vaping-associated

lung illnesses so far are male.

Males are more likely to use

e-cigarettes than females, in-

vestigators said, but the gen-

der gap among those who are

getting sick is wider than the

gap among those who vape in

general.

The rate of nicotine vaping

doubled among middle- and

high-school children between

2017 and 2019, according to

Monitoring the Future, an an-

nual survey of teen drug and

alcohol use conducted by the

University of Michigan.

More than one in four 12th-

graders surveyed this year, or

25%, reported that they vaped

nicotine within the past 30

days—a measure of regular

use. One in five, or 20%, of

10th-graders and one in 11, or

9%, of eighth-graders also re-

ported regular nicotine vaping.

The CDC activated its emer-

gency-operations center on

Sept. 16 to further help inves-

tigate the illnesses.

The seventh death, reported

on Sept. 16, was a resident of

Tulare County, Calif., the sec-

ond death in the state. The

male patient was over the age

of 40 and had a history of vap-

ing and smoking, according to

the Tulare County Health and

Human Services Agency.

The number of confirmed

or probable cases of vaping-

associated pulmonary illness

has risen to 530 across 38

states and one U.S. territory,

the Centers for Disease Con-

trol and Prevention reported

Thursday, and a federal official

disclosed that a criminal probe

is under way.

Seven people have died.

Federal officials are trying

to zero in on a cause or causes

of the recent wave of illnesses.

The Food and Drug Adminis-

tration said it is examining

more than 150 vaping product

samples for clues. People who

have become ill have reported

using a range of products and

substances, including those

containing THC and nicotine

together and separately. THC

is the psychoactive ingredient

in cannabis.

“I wish we had more an-

swers,” said Anne Schuchat,

principal deputy director of

the CDC. “We don’t know if

there’s a single exposure or

multiple, and I think a variety

of hypotheses are being con-

sidered.”

The FDA has tapped its Of-

fice of Criminal Investigations

to help with the analysis and

to pursue leads without prose-

cuting individuals for use of il-

BYBRIANNAABBOTT

ANDBETSYMCKAY

Vaping Illnesses Rise to 530

HealthHazard

Nicotine vaping has roughly

doubled among teens in the

past two years.

Prevalenceofnicotinevaping

duringtheprior30days

Source: Monitoring the Future Study

25

0

5

10

15

20

%

2017 ’18 ’

12th grade 10th 8th

Backers of a move to overturn a Maine law eliminating nonmedical vaccine exemptions seem to have enough support to force a vote.

ROBERT F. BUKATY/ASSOCIATED PRESS

WASHINGTON—The Educa-

tion Department ordered Duke

University and the University

of North Carolina at Chapel

Hill to overhaul their joint

Middle Eastern studies pro-

gram, which the department

determined presented a biased

curriculum.

The federal government

rarely intervenes in the intri-

cacies of college curricula, but

the agency has broad author-

ity to demand changes of

schools that accept federal

grants and financial aid. The

department under Education

Secretary Betsy DeVos has

taken an unprecedented role

in addressing what the Trump

administration has called per-

rules this year. The repeal

came in the midst of the worst

measles outbreak in the U.S.

since 1992.

In Maine, authorities have

raised alarms about schoolchil-

dren missing vaccinations at a

growing pace. Among kinder-

gartners, the state’s vaccina-

tion-exemption rate has

reached 6.2%, the highest level

in 10 years of tracking data and

above national levels in recent

years, the Maine Center for

Disease Control and Prevention

said in April.

The vast majority of exemp-

tions in Maine are for nonmed-

ical reasons. In 2017-18, the last

period of both federal and

state-level data, Maine’s esti-

mated nonmedical vaccine ex-

emption rate among kinder-

gartners reached 5% compared

with 2% nationally, a state re-

port said.

Opponents aiming to over-

turn the law delivered more

than 93,000 signatures to the

Maine Secretary of State’s of-

fice Wednesday, well above the

roughly 63,000 needed to qual-

ify for a ballot question during

the state’s presidential primary

in early March. The secretary

of state has 30 days to validate

the signatures, and the new

law is on hold until then.

“We just feel that this is a

massive government over-

reach,” said Cara Sacks, co-

chairwoman of the group

Mainers for Health and Paren-

tal Rights, which is campaign-

ing against the vaccine re-

quirements.

She said her group wasn’t

antivaccine, but wanted to

preserve options and was

skeptical about the accessibil-

ity of medical exemptions.

“There should be personal

level of choice on what is in-

jected into your body,” she

said.

Proponents of the new law

want to keep the debate cen-

tered on health, not politics.

The law “is important be-

cause low vaccination rates

put young kids and other

folks at risk for vaccine pre-

ventable diseases,” said Cait-

lin Gilmet, treasurer of the

political-action group Maine

Families for Vaccines. Her

group plans to campaign to

keep the new restrictions on

the books.

Opponents of vaccination

requirements in Maine are

close to getting a question

added to the March ballot that

would ask voters to overturn a

state law eliminating nonmedi-

cal vaccine exemptions for

schoolchildren.

The state legislature, which

is controlled by Democrats,

passed the law this year amid

worries about low immuniza-

tion rates among students. The

law still allows for medical ex-

emptions, but no more for reli-

gious and philosophical rea-

sons. The law gave children

now enrolled in school until

2021 to get their required

shots.

Maine is one of a handful of

states that have passed laws to

limit exemptions to vaccina-

tions developed to stop the

spread of infectious diseases

like measles, which immuniza-

tion can keep at bay. New York

eliminated religious exemp-

tions from school-vaccination

BYJONKAMP

Vaccine Foes Push Maine Ballot Item

vasive anti-Israel bias at col-

leges and universities.

Mrs. DeVos has criticized

activists who support “Boy-

cott, Divest, Sanctions” poli-

cies against Israel over its

treatment of Palestinians, a

movement the secretary once

called a “pernicious threat” on

campuses. The department’s

civil rights chief, Ken Marcus,

previously ran an advocacy or-

ganization that filed civil

rights complaints against BDS

groups on campuses, arguing

that they discriminated

against Jewish students.

In a letter it issued to the

schools in August after an in-

vestigation, the department

concluded that the curriculum

doesn’t align with guidelines

for a $235,000 federal grant

that the program receives for

international studies and for-

eign language programs.

“Federal funding is condi-

tioned on a demonstration

that a given center program is

a ‘national resource,’” the as-

sistant secretary for postsec-

ondary education, Robert

King, wrote in the letter.

Mr. King wrote in the letter

that the program’s emphasis

on foreign-language instruc-

tion was unclear, and took is-

sue with the extent of its cul-

tural offerings, saying they

didn’t advance U.S. economic

or national security goals.

The investigation found

that the program put “consid-

erable emphasis” on the posi-

tive aspects of Islam, while

not attempting to similarly

demonstrate the positive as-

pects of Judaism and Christi-

anity. The letter stated that

the program’s offerings were

unduly focused on “advancing

ideological priorities.”

In a statement, UNC-Chapel

Hill said it is “committed to

working with the department

to provide more information

about its programs.” Duke

didn’t respond to a request for

comment.

The letter’s demands raised

concern among advocates of

free speech and academic free-

dom. Suzanne Nossel, chief ex-

ecutive of PEN America, a

nonprofit group promoting

freedom of expression, said

that “a piece of this seems to

touch on a sort of ideological

policing.”

BYMICHELLEHACKMAN

Schools’ Mideast Program Deemed Biased

OptingOut

Nonmedical vaccine

exemptions in Maine

kindergarten classrooms are

above the national average.

Estimatedpercentageof

kindergartenstudentswith

nonmedicalexemptions

Source: Maine Department of Health and

Human Services

Note: For school years ending in year shown;

2018-19 national exemption rate not yet

available

6

0

2

4

%

2015 ’16 ’17 ’18 ’

Maine

National

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