The way this is being reported, I feel quite confident that this is some sort of a deliberate propaganda campaign.

The two biggest red flags for me:

1) Language used in official press releases, weasel wording like:

a) "over 450 possible cases of lung illness associated with the use of e-cigarette products"

b) "The investigation has not identified any [single - my addition] specific substance or e-cigarette product that is linked to all cases. Many [how many? do you have no statistics on that? why?] patients report using e-cigarette products with liquids that contain cannabinoid products, such as tetrahydrocannabinol (THC)".

It seems written in a manner to maximize plausible deniability, hinting at one thing strongly [but not saying it outright], and making an extremely subtle acknowledgement of alternative causes [in the spirit of professionalism and "full disclosure"], but not reporting the magnitude of the "many", which could very well be 100%.

That's the beauty (and shortcoming) of written language for communication - when something is written in a seemingly deceitful style like this, there's no way for sure of knowing whether it is accidental or not. Unnecessary vagueness from a facts based organization like the CDC and #2 (below) make me lean strongly towards the deliberately deceitful interpretation.

2) Vaping has been extremely widespread for years, with few reports like these. And then out of the blue, 450 cases (5 deaths) occur in one country. No curiosity whatsoever about why everything is fine for years and then a massive spike in a very short period of time, in one country.

I could very well be wrong, but I will make a prediction: this will play heavily in the media for a few more weeks and then subtly degrade to a "gee, we don't really know what the real issue was, but our research is ongoing", and we won't hear about it again.

EDIT: From another HN comment:

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https://www.health.ny.gov/press/releases/2019/2019-09-05_vap...

New York State Department of Health Announces Update on Investigation into Vaping-Associated Pulmonary Illnesses

Department Warns Against Use of Black Market Vaping Products

Lab Test Results Show High Levels of Vitamin E Acetate, Now Focus of Investigation

The Department issued a health advisory in August, alerting health care providers of this emerging health threat and listing symptoms they should look for in patients. As of September 5, 2019, the Department has received 34 reports from New York State physicians of severe pulmonary illness among patients ranging from 15 to 46 years of age who were using at least one cannabis-containing vape product before they became ill. However, all patients reported recent use of various vape products.

Laboratory test results showed very high levels of vitamin E acetate in nearly all cannabis-containing samples analyzed by the Wadsworth Center as part of this investigation. At least one vitamin E acetate containing vape product has been linked to each patient who submitted a product for testing. Vitamin E acetate is not an approved additive for New York State Medical Marijuana Program-authorized vape products and was not seen in the nicotine-based products that were tested.

As a result, vitamin E acetate is now a key focus of the Department's investigation of potential causes of vaping-associated pulmonary illnesses. Vitamin E acetate is a commonly available nutritional supplement that is not known to cause harm when ingested as a vitamin supplement or applied to the skin. However, the Department continues to investigate its health effects when inhaled because its oil-like properties could be associated with the observed symptoms.

The Wadsworth Center is testing both cannabis and nicotine-containing vape products as part of this investigation and continues testing the purity of New York's approved medical marijuana products. More than a dozen product samples, in some cases multiple samples from a single product, from patients reporting symptoms have been tested. These samples have been tested for a range of substances, including THC and other cannabis-derived cannabinoids, nicotine, synthetic cannabinoids, opioids and pesticides. Products tested include a variety of labels and packaging. Many are suspected to be counterfeits of recreational cannabis-containing vape products available in other states.

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It's rather interesting that absolutely none of these extra details, which have been available for quite some time now, appear in any official CDC reports.