CAPHRA Report Urges Transparency

The Cost of Concealment: The People Pay the Price identifies a recurring pattern in which political pressures, institutional interests, and reputational concerns have influenced how critical health information is communicated. This pattern, the report suggests, has been evident in past events such as the COVID-19 pandemic, and more recently in the restructuring of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in the United States and Argentina’s withdrawal from the World Health Organization (WHO).

Nancy Loucas, Executive Coordinator for CAPHRA, told Planet of the Vapes: “In times of crisis, the public depends on officials and scientists to provide clear, objective, and timely information. When this duty is compromised, the consequences are measured not just in lost trust, but in lost lives.”

Historical examples such as the Tuskegee Syphilis Study are cited in the report to underscore the long-standing impact of withheld information, particularly on marginalized communities. It draws parallels to more recent instances where early suppression of scientific discourse during the COVID-19 pandemic contributed to public confusion and the proliferation of misinformation.

Clarisse Virgino, CAPHRA’s representative in the Philippines, added: “When science is manipulated or dissenting views are silenced, it ceases to be a tool of discovery and becomes a tool of conformity.”

The report also references the opioid crisis as a case in which regulatory failures and inadequate communication contributed to a significant public health emergency. It emphasises that limited transparency and selective reporting can have global ramifications, empowering misinformation, weakening public institutions, and leading to ineffective policy responses.

CAPHRA’s report concludes with a call for renewed commitment to ethical standards, transparency, and scientific independence. It urges officials, researchers, and institutions to prioritize public welfare over political or personal interests.

The report concludes: “As the world prepares for future health challenges, maintaining the highest standards of integrity is not optional—it is essential to restoring public trust and safeguarding lives.”

The Coalition of Asia Pacific Tobacco Harm Advocates is a regional alliance of consumer tobacco harm reduction advocacy organisations.

The organisation says: “CAPHRA is not related to or funded by any commercial interests. It is composed of volunteer consumer advocates from the Asia Pacific Region. We hope putting forward this information would clarify any doubt as to our interests and intentions.

“CAPHRA stays committed to its mission to educate, advocate and represent the right of adult alternative nicotine consumers to access and use of products that reduce harm from tobacco use. 

“We advocate for the rights of consumers in the Asia-Pacific region to access and use evidence-based, regulated, and properly marketed harm reduction products as a means of reducing the devastating impact of smoking-related diseases.”

References:

• The Cost of Concealment: The People Pay the Price - https://caphraorg.net/wp-content/uploads/pdfs/The_Cost_of_Concealment-The_People_Pay_the_Price.pdf

Photo Credit:

• Photo by Bernd Dittrich on Unsplash, resized and cropped

Dave Cross

Journalist at POTV

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Dave is a freelance writer; with articles on music, motorbikes, football, pop-science, vaping and tobacco harm reduction in Sounds, Melody Maker, UBG, AWoL, Bike, When Saturday Comes, Vape News Magazine, and syndicated across the Johnston Press group. He was published in an anthology of “Greatest Football Writing”, but still believes this was a mistake. Dave contributes sketches to comedy shows and used to co-host a radio sketch show. He’s worked with numerous start-ups to develop content for their websites.