In this episode Will Godfrey highlights the interconnected links between Vietnam's recent vape ban and the influence of Bloomberg-funded entities, and how the well-funded opposition to tobacco harm reduction influences vape restrictions across the globe.
Transcription:
00:04 - 00:34
[Joanna Junak]
Hello and welcome! I'm Joanna Junak and this is GFN News on GFN.TV. Today we will be speaking with Will Godfrey of Filter about the recent vape ban in Vietnam. Hi Will! Could you please describe the situation?
00:35 - 01:14
[Will Godfrey]
Hi, Joanna. Vietnam's National Assembly voted to ban vapes in November in the name of public health and safety, citing youth use. Men in Vietnam in particular smoke at an extremely high rate, 44% by one estimate, and Vietnam suffers over 100,000 annual smoking-related deaths. Banning proven smoking cessation tools is massively self-defeating, but why did it happen? Mark Gunther reported in Filter on the shadowy but significant role of the network of organizations funded by billionaire Michael Bloomberg.
01:17 - 01:19
[Joanna Junak]
And what are some of the connections?
01:21 - 03:47
[Will Godfrey]
I should also say Mark noted too the government's ownership of Vietnam's dominant tobacco company when the vape ban targets a competitive threat. But when it comes to the Bloomberg groups, first, there's the general disinformation they spread. This is reflected by the words of a Vietnamese health ministry official who claimed in October that no scientific evidence supports the claim that e-cigarettes or heated tobacco products reduce harm or aid in quitting smoking. and falsely ascribed the 95% less harmful figure for vapes, which comes from a Public Health England review, to a study funded by the tobacco industry. Then there's the question of direct pressure from Bloomberg philanthropies or various Bloomberg-funded non-profits or the Bloomberg-funded World Health Organization. It is inconceivable to me that the ministry would have a tobacco control seminar and WHO and its Bloomberg funded partners would not be present, wrote tobacco control expert Clive Bates of the October event. The Bloomberg team has enjoyed a deep collaboration with the government in Vietnam, wrote Dr. Kelly Henning of Bloomberg Philanthropies in a since deleted blog post. and Vietnam is among 10 priority countries listed by the Bloomberg Initiative to reduce tobacco use. The group celebrated Vietnam's ban. The government is to be commended for this life-saving measure, said Sandra Mullen of Vital Strategies, which received $43 million from Bloomberg Philanthropies for its tobacco work in 2021 and 2022. The Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, which received 40 million from Bloomberg Philanthropies for Tobacco Work in those years, issued a similar statement. None of these groups responded to Mark's interview requests. He did get a response of a kind from Angela Pratt, the Vietnam rep of the WHO, which received over 18 million from Bloomberg Philanthropies for Tobacco Work in those same two years. Pratt, representing the world's foremost health agency, told Mark that there is no evidence that vapes help people quit smoking.
03:49 - 03:50
[Joanna Junak]
So what's the bigger picture here?
03:52 - 05:02
[Will Godfrey]
Bloomberg's fingerprints have been all over vape bans and attempted bans for years, especially in lower-income countries where smoking rates are highest. We've reported on Bloomberg funding for such efforts in the Philippines, for example, and in Mexico, which has since enshrined a vape ban in its constitution, a prohibitionist lawmakers 2020 initiative was discovered to have been drafted by a lawyer working for the campaign for tobacco-free kids. It's obviously unconscionable when combustible tobacco kills 8 million people per year and people are denied vastly safer replacements. One thing that really gets me too is that vital strategies, for instance, and even the WHO support harm reduction around other drugs. The mismatch speaks to the pervasive influence of one man with a ton of money. In Vietnam, as public health professor Jonathan Folds wrote, to leave cigarettes as the monopoly legal source of nicotine is to negligently cause excess deaths. This is public health ignorance at its worst.
05:04 - 05:22
[Joanna Junak]
Thank you, Will. That's all for today. Tune in next time here on GFN TV or on our podcast. And make sure to check out our social media pages for the latest updates on this year's Global Forum on Nicotine conference. Thanks for watching or listening. See you next time.