E-cigarette use and lung function: preliminary results from the VapeScan Study

Aims: VapeScan aims to study associations between e-cigarette (e-cig) use and lung structure and function in diverse young adults from New York City. Since the Study started during the pandemic, we performed preliminary analyses to test if recent COVID infection is a confounder of associations between e-cig use and lung function. Method(s): We are enrolling adults ages 18-50 years using e-cigs only, e-cigs and cigarettes, and dual non-users. Pre-bronchodilator spirometry and questionnaires are done at baseline. Lung function was regressed on e-cig use adjusted for age, sex, race, BMI, height, asthma, and COVID history. Result(s): 57 participants completed spirometry between October 2021 and May 2022, including 14 (25%) e-cig users, 13 (23%) dual e-cig/cigarette users, and 30 (53%) dual non-users. Average age was 26 years (range:18-49), 38 (67%) were women, 25 (44%) were non-Hispanic White, 6 (11%) were Black, 16 (28%) were Asian, 19 (33%) were Hispanic, 10 (18%) had asthma, 15 (26%) had prior COVID. After adjustment, e-cig use was associated with 8% lower FEV1-predicted (95%CI:17%,-2%,p=.1) and 0.05 lower FEV1/FVC (95%CI:0.11,-0.001,p=.06). COVID history was not associated with outcomes (p>.27) and effect estimates did not change after adjustment (Figure). Conclusion(s): In data collected during the Omicron Wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, e-cig use showed a trend towards association with lower FEV1% and FEV1/FVC independent of COVID history.

Government and Private Household Debt Relief during COVID-19

We study the suspension of household debt payments (debt forbearance) during the COVID-19 pandemic. Between March 2020 and May 2021, more than 70 million consumers with loans worth $2.3 trillion entered forbearance, missing $86 billion of their payments. This debt relief can help explain the absence of consumer defaults relative to the evolution of economic fundamentals. Borrowers??? self-selection is a powerful force in determining forbearance rates: relief flows to households suffering pandemic-induced shocks that would otherwise have faced debt distress. Moreover, 55 percent of forbearance is provided to less creditworthy borrowers with above median income and higher debt balances???that is, those excluded from income-based policies, such as the stimulus check program. A fifth of borrowers in forbearance continued making full payments, suggesting that forbearance acts as a credit line. By May 2021, about 60 percent of borrowers had already exited forbearance while more financially vulnerable and lower income borrowers were still in forbearance with an accumulated debt overhang of about $60 billion. Exploiting a discontinuity in mortgage eligibility under the CARES Act, we estimate that implicit government debt relief subsidies increase the rate of forbearance by about a third. Government relief is provided through private intermediaries, with shadow banks less likely to provide forbearance than traditional banks.