Before the emergence of Covid-19, hospitals across the United States were facing an epidemic of their own in the form of vaping related illnesses.
EVALI, which stands for e-cigarette or vaping use-associated lung injury, was newly identified during an outbreak of cases in 2019.
Cigarette usage amongst young Americans was on its way out in 2017. Today, the United States has the largest market in the world for vape and e-cigarette products, worth over 6.2 billion dollars.
According to the CDC, 20% of Americans ages 18 to 29 use vape products.
Although scientists are still learning about the long-term health effects of e-cigarettes, the American Lung Association says that the inhalation of harmful chemicals from vaping can cause irreversible lung damage and lung disease.
Manhattan native Sophie Naufal, 21, was a casual cigarette smoker, but became a habitual smoker in July of 2019 when she discovered e-cigarettes.
“It’s easier to vape because it doesn’t smell, it’s less costly, you can smoke anywhere you want and the smoke evaporates immediately. It’s more efficient overall,” she said.
Naufal admitted that at the height of her addiction she would smoke one vape pod per day and would spend over $600 per month on e-cigarettes.
However, it took two years for Naufal to start to feel the effects of her addiction.
“My body wasn’t letting me smoke my vape anymore,” she said.
Naufal started to feel sick and had symptoms including shortness of breath, coughing, vomiting and fatigue.
“It came to a point where I thought I had covid because the symptoms were exactly the same.”
A recent study published by the New England Journal of Medicine stated that people who smoke are 2.4 times more likely to have severe symptoms from COVID-19 compared to those who did not smoke.
On Jan. 25th, 2021, Naufal was admitted to Weill Cornell Hospital on the Upper East Side of Manhattan where she was not diagnosed with Covid-19, but rather with EVALI.
Naufal spent the next two weeks hooked up to a ventilator and said she received similar treatments typically given to patients with Covid-19. During her stay at the hospital, Naufal stayed on a floor dedicated to EVALI patients.
She said that many doctors had told her that before the rise of Covid-19, the “vaping pandemic” brought in an average of 20 hopsitalizations per week, but the numbers have seen a steady decline since the start of the Covid pandemic.
Pediatric pulmonologist Mikhail Kazachkov, MD, of NYU Langone Health in New York City, told MedPage Today, "We are seeing fewer cases, but we can't really say why this is...Certainly, EVALI is still out there."
“I got very lucky that my lungs recovered,” said Naufal.
Today, Sophie Naufal is completely sober from all types of e-cigarettes and nicotine products. She has been tracking her progress on an app called “I Am Sober” that fosters a community of ex-vapers and addicts to support eachother on their own journeys, as well as celebrate milestones together.
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