The explanation isn’t as simple as you’d think.
The mysterious-sounding “Havana Syndrome” has been getting a lot of press attention lately. These alleged “directed energy attacks” leaving sufferers anxious and off-balance have been reported globally — but left no one the wiser as to who might be responsible.
The New Yorker broke the news last year that Vienna, Austria had become another hotspot for the condition, with about two dozen U.S. intelligence officers, diplomats, and other government officials in the city apparently falling sick from the time Joe Biden took office. As of 2021, as many as 200 Americans had reported signs of “Havana syndrome” — with more than half of the sufferers linked to the CIA.
The deputy chief of the CIA briefed senators on June 23 on an investigation into the “anomalous health incidents” experienced by U.S. diplomats and intelligence officers that have been collectively termed “Havana syndrome.” The Biden administration plans to compensate sufferers, with some individual payouts expected to hit six figures per The Washington Post.
The plan comes under the remit of the HAVANA Act, which President Biden signed into law in 2021. The Act “authorizes the Central Intelligence Agency, the Department of State, and other agencies to provide payments to agency personnel who incur brain injuries from hostilities while on assignment.”
We’ve got more on the mysterious affliction, and why it remains a controversial issue, below.
When did reports of “Havana Syndrome” start?
The syndrome was first reported in Cuba in 2016-17, when U.S. and Canadian diplomats complained of loss of balance, cognitive fog, anxiety, and hearing loss. The Trump administration accused Cuba of executing “sonic attacks,” which Cuba emphatically denied. This was followed by a 2018 study by the Journal of the American Medical Association, which found that diplomats had experienced some brain injury, but was unable to determine the cause. In 2019, another JAMA study found “brain anomalies” in the affected diplomats – but Cuba dismissed the report.
What causes “Havana Syndrome”?
The exact cause of the symptoms remains unknown, and it’s increasingly controversial. Theories include microwaves, ultrasound, and pesticides or infectious agents. Some critics maintain that what has been reported as “Havana syndrome” are in fact episodes of mass hysteria — contrary to the 2018 JAMA report, which noted the physical evidence of brain trauma.
“Many people have stopped searching for information, and instead they’re searching for confirmation of their pre-existing beliefs,” Robert Bartholomew, medical sociologist and author of Havana Syndrome: Mass Psychogenic Illness and the Real Story Behind the Embassy Mystery and Hysteria told KCM in July 2021. “The doctors at the U.S. State Department went for the most exotic hypothesis early on — they went searching for unicorns when they should have stuck to mundane explanations.”
But what about the sufferers’ brain injuries?
“If you look at the 2018 JAMA study — even before it was published, information was leaked to the press that many of the patients had mysterious white matter tract changes in their brains,” explained Bartholomew. (“White matter” refers to areas of the central nervous system made up of tracts. It affects learning and brain functions, and coordinates communications between different regions of the brain.) “However, when the study was published, only three had white matter tract changes — two were mild and one was moderate. This is not unusual. If you randomly picked 21 people from the streets of New York or Havana, you would have a similar breakdown, because white matter tract changes are common in everything from depression, to dementia, to normal aging.”
Bartholomew argued that the hearing loss and brain abnormalities reported by sufferers have similarly benign explanations. “When the 2018 study came out, only two subjects had hearing loss — in both cases, pre-existing before they went to Cuba,” he said. “Patients said they thought they had hearing loss when they were interviewed, but when they were tested, they didn’t.” He added that the JAMA study’s authors conflated brain changes with brain damage — and contested that the brain anomalies were caused by long-term stress in people who “believed they were the victim of a mysterious attack by a secret weapon.”
And what about the “strange sound” sufferers in Cuba reported hearing?
“Embassy employees were told to be on the lookout for the sound and any symptoms they may develop after AP broke the Cuba story in 2017,” explained Dr. Baloh, neuroscientist, and co-author of Havana Syndrome. “Some later recorded the sounds, and when experts analyzed them, they were most consistent with crickets.”
So what’s next?
When he spoke to KCM last year, Dr. Baloh suggested that the Biden administration’s initial decision not to announce the Vienna “outbreak” was evidence that it’s starting to “come around” to the mass hysteria explanation. Clearly, this theory hasn’t been borne out in the months since. Many current and former U.S. officials have identified Russia as the potential perpetrator of the alleged attacks, and it was reported last July that a task force to determine the origins of Havana syndrome was being headed up by a member of the CIA who worked on the hunt for Osama Bin Laden. That person planned, officials said, to bring “that same intensity and rigor to the hunt for the source of the unexplained health incidents.”
It’s important to stress that Dr. Baloh and Bartholemew’s skepticism is far from universal — and that alleged sufferers have been fighting hard for recognition and compensation for some time. “The reality is that this has been an intelligence community issue for decades,” Mark Zaid, a lawyer representing Havana Syndrome victims, told The Guardian in May last year.
Stay tuned…
Note: This post has been updated since its initial publication in July 2021 to reflect the Biden administration’s decision on compensation for Havana syndrome sufferers.
