Merged US may close Cuba Embassy over 'health attacks'

[dann]

‘Ockham’s razor’ has become a household name in science and medicine. It is used as a synonym for logical thinking and is equated to the principle of parsimony which should be applied when diagnosing and theorizing. Contrary to popular belief, however, parsimony is not a synonym of simplicity. Here, we propose a new interpretation: ‘novacula’ (razor) identifies also the scraping knife used by medieval scribes to correct errors when writing on parchment. Accordingly, ‘Ockham’s razor’ is not a call for simplicity, but a means to updating, amending and evaluating hypotheses, however complex they need be.
Ockham’s razor, not a barber’s weapon but a writer’s tool (Brain, Volume 145 Issue 6, June 2022)

It sounds interesting, and it appears to use the 'Havana Syndrome' as an example: "A case in point in the recent neurological literature is the so-called Havana syndrome. A few years ago, several employees of the US embassy in Havana, ..."
But paywalled!

One of the authors is Sergio Della Sala from the University of Edinburgh, who has been criticizing the idea of a 'sonic attack' (or any other attack, I think) at least since 2018.
Is there a “Havana Syndrome”? (OnCubaNews, March 6, 2020)

 

[Planigale]

It sounds interesting, and it appears to use the 'Havana Syndrome' as an example: "A case in point in the recent neurological literature is the so-called Havana syndrome. A few years ago, several employees of the US embassy in Havana, ..."
But paywalled!

One of the authors is Sergio Della Sala from the University of Edinburgh, who has been criticizing the idea of a 'sonic attack' (or any other attack, I think) at least since 2018.
Is there a “Havana Syndrome”? (OnCubaNews, March 6, 2020)

FYI the relevant bit in the article;

The profile of the new syndrome does not conform to a systematic pattern and would require diverse assumptions. Although a precise account of some of these cases is still lacking, since alternative, simpler explanations are available, including functional neurological disorders, postulating a new syndrome breaches the core principle of Ockham’s parsimony principle, which dictates the elimination of improbable hypotheses.

 

[dann]

Thanks! Parsimony was a new word to me. But it makes sense that it isn't enough to go for the simplest explanation. 'Putin zapped us!' is obviously much simpler than 'We were already paranoid, and then we got scared by a weird noise and thought that we were being attacked!'
But when you begin to elaborate on the simple explanation in an attempt to make it seem probable, it becomes extremely complex, like the idea that several factions of enemies would have carried out similar attacks all over the world. Much like the attempts to explain the retrograde motion of planets in the (at first, very simple) geocentric view of the world. So parallax it is!

I will have to read the whole article at the library.

 

[dann]

This is another one of those articles that have somehow managed to stay below the Google radar:
Two Reports About the Havana Syndrome: Which Should We Believe? (Medium, Feb 8, 2022)
The two reports mentioned in the title are the JASON report and the NAS report.

There is now a Danish translation of Brad Roth's article: To rapporter om Havana-syndromet: Hvilken rapport skal vi tro på? (Skeptica.dk)
Those of you who know as little about physics as three out of four Danish skeptics involved with the translation may be in for a surprise when you get to the word huddybde, skin depth. It doesn't mean what I thought it meant.

 

[dann]

I don't remember seeing this anywhere before:

As neuroscientists and physicists we have no reason to dispute that US diplomats living in Cuba heard loud noises, or that they reported feeling ill afterwards. Some US politicians have seized on these reports to construct conspiracy theories in which they imagine a mysterious disease-causing “sound ray gun” – something that isn’t possible with today’s technology. These same politicians have used their positions of authority to present their speculations to a credulous public as though they are fact. The pronouncements, in turn, have led to international confrontation and hysteria, resulting in the removal and expulsion of diplomats, and travel advisories. Now, an apparently analogous incident has been reported in China.

A “preliminary communication” from the University of Pennsylvania, with US government support, published in the prestigious Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), has been used to buttress this putative “acoustic attack” idea with science. In fact, that work is deeply flawed, and does nothing to support the attack theory. We thus applaud the recent paper by Sergio Della Sala and Robert McIntosh, for its thoughtful criticisms of the JAMA report, and praise the effort described in the Guardian (Cuba calls on US and Canada to investigate ‘sonic attack’ claims, 29 May) to engage in an international scientific collaboration to study any connection between the illnesses and sound. Science works best this way, when qualified people can evaluate evidence without political pressure to draw poorly founded conclusions.

We hope that sober and calmer heads will prevail in de-escalating this frenzy, avoiding a chill in both diplomatic relations and scientific collaboration between the US and Cuba.
Havana Syndrome conspiracy theories and flawed science (Investorshub, July 4, 2022)

It is signed by 15 neuroscientists and physicists from all over the world. But it refers to an article in The Guardian from May 29, 2018, and the University of Pennsylvania study was published in JAMA March 20, 2018, so I can't believe that this open letter is new.

 

[dann]

There is now a Danish translation of Brad Roth's article: To rapporter om Havana-syndromet: Hvilken rapport skal vi tro på? (Skeptica.dk)
Those of you who know as little about physics as three out of four Danish skeptics involved with the translation may be in for a surprise when you get to the word huddybde, skin depth. It doesn't mean what I thought it meant.

Does anybody know how to make Google Translate stop translating the Danish word fårekyllinger into sheep chickens? I have tried to correct it but didn't succeed.
The translation from Danish into German is different but just as bad (and still sheep-related): Hammelfleisch.

Have pity on the unfortunate Danish cricket manufacturing industry whose exports are ruined by this error!

 

[dann]

Skeptical Inquirer presents, July 21, 2022 - 7:00 pm EDT:

Robert Bartholomew will discuss his investigation into ‘Havana Syndrome’ and the bad science behind it. He describes it as a myth that is a product of shoddy science, poor journalism and bad government. He will also examine the history of mass psychogenic illness (aka, ‘mass hysteria) from the strange case of the meowing nuns during the latter Middle Ages to more recent outbreaks involving hiccupping schoolgirls in Massachusetts to recent claims that Lucky Charms cereal is making people sick. Yes – mass psychogenic illness is alive and well, yet many people including medical professionals do not have an accurate understanding of the concept and incorrectly equate it with mental illness or psychological weakness.
Why Mass Hysteria is Thriving in the 21st Century - Featuring: Robert Bartholomew

 

[Skeptic Ginger]

Skeptical Inquirer presents, July 21, 2022 - 7:00 pm EDT:

I concur.

 

[dann]

I didn't know about Lucky Charms cereal, but it looks disgusting. A photo of it is enough to make me nauseous!
Maybe some MPIs should be encouraged ...

 

[dann]

The United States recently restored limited consular services in Cuba, after the embassy had been closed since 2017, because of the so-called “Havana Syndrome” attacks on diplomatic staff. Most Cubans wishing to travel to the U.S. still have to go to other countries, which is costly and time-consuming.
For example, Klobuchar said Juan Carlos Oliva was told the next visa appointment in the Dominican Republic would not be until 2024. She said the case highlights the need for improved relations between the two counties.
“It is possible for us to change foreign policy when it comes to Cuba because what we have been doing has not been really working, and I think it is time to open the doors more,” she said.
Klobuchar helps Twins legend reunite with brother ahead of Hall of Fame induction (MPR News, July 10, 2022)

She should tell Biden and Blinken ...

 

[dann]

Not the 'Havana Syndrome', but ...

Police in the United States have told implausible stories about airborne fentanyl exposures for years. The real symptoms appear related to panic attacks and the psychological trauma of policing.
In July 2021, the San Diego Sheriff posted a video on “the dangers of fentanyl.” The video shows a police officer searching a car trunk, allegedly containing the opioid fentanyl. After reaching his hands into the trunk, the officer falls backward onto the ground and becomes nonresponsive until a partner administers naloxone, an opioid blocker. The official explanation was that the officer overdosed on fentanyl due to airborne or skin contact. However, within a few days, media outlets (even some that had credulously reported the initial claim) pointed out that medical experts nearly uniformly agree that airborne or skin-contact overdoses of fentanyl are impossible. Fentanyl is potent and dangerous, and the cause of a large number of overdose deaths, but it must be absorbed into the blood (dermal absorption is usually achieved through particularly receptive skin in the mouth or nose using special patches).
Police, panic, and fentanyl (LeidenLawBlog.nl, Sep 14. 2021)

Can touch this: training to correct police officer beliefs about overdose from incidental contact with fentanyl (Health and Justice Journal #9, article #34 (2021))

I hadn't heard about this before, but it was mentioned (and the clip shown) on this week's Last Week Tonight with John Oliver, from 4:20 to 7:40:

"He found a white substance that he suspected was drugs. ... A couple of seconds later, he took some steps back, and he collapsed."
They heard a shrill noise that they suspected was a sonic attack ... and now, five years later, they are still incapacitated by it.

I can't wait for John Oliver to make an episode about the 'Havana Syndrome'. (Why didn't he already do so?)
And isn't it high time to institute training to correct diplomat and CIA officer beliefs about attacks from incidental exposure to the sound of lovelorn crickets?


ETA: Notice that this happens to adult trained police officers. They aren't teenage school girls.

Mass hysteria among trained diplomats is unlikely.

It hasn't stopped:

It's become a meme at this point: videos of cops having what appear to be seizures or other serious physical reactions when they just so happen to touch a small amount of fentanyl, a purported transdermal overdose that seems to always happen in front of another cop's smartphone camera.
(...)
One could be forgiven for presuming most of these cops are faking their symptoms for YouTube views, which is a predominant belief among the police-critical, comparing it to the mysterious and widely-disbelieved Havana Syndrome phenomenon said to be suffered by CIA and other intelligence agents.
But as it turns out, they may not necessarily be faking it at all. Instead, experts told the Times, they may be experiencing a "mass psychogenic illness," otherwise known as mass hysteria.
(...)
It's unclear whether that cop or any other were caught lying about their fentanyl exposure, but whether they're lying, experiencing mass hysteria, or, as academic journal articles have suggested, having run-of-the-mill panic attacks, this strange phenomenon seems like it simply won't die.
Cops Keep Having Impossible Fentanyl "Seizures" on Camera for Some Reason (Futurism, July 17, 2022)

What’s Really Going on in Those Police Fentanyl Exposure Videos? (NYT, July 13, 2022)

 

[dann]

Podcast, 25:58 min.

Animals sometimes make noises that would be impossible to place without context. In this episode, three types of animal vocalizations—described by the people who recorded them.
(...)
Also heard: calls of the Indies Short Tailed Cricket (Anurogryllus celerinictus), which may be the perpetrator of the so-called “sonic attacks” recently reported in Cuba. Sound sent in by HBM listener Isaul in Puerto Rico.
Laughing Rats and Dawn Rituals (Here Be Monsters (HBM), The Podcast about the Unknown, March 17, 2021)

 

[dann]

Skeptical Inquirer presents, July 21, 2022 - 7:00 pm EDT:

Skeptical Inquirer/Center for Inquiry's presentation of Robert Bartholomew's discussion of massy hysteria in general and the 'Havana Syndrome' in particular is now on YouTube:

Robert Bartholomew - Why Mass Hysteria is Thriving in the 21st Century (Center for Inquiry on YouTube, July 22, 2022 - 1:04:35)

The interviewer is Leighann Lord. She is also not a fan of Lucky Charms. And unlike me, she has probably tasted it.

If you have already listened to other recent long interviews with Bartholomew, you will have heard most of it before, but I would still recommend listening to what he says about Robert Baloh's involvement as a reviewer of the JAMA study, beginning at 46:00, and a little later when he goes into the role played by David Relman in first the NAS study and then in the report from the small panel that attempted to render the CIA study from Jan 20, 2022, null and void by claiming all over again that a microwave weapon was the cause of the alleged syndrome.
Since Checkmite was the most outspoken admirer of the NAS and its study, I think that he should at least listen to the last 20 minutes of the interview.

 

[dann]

This article is from February 2022, after both the CIA interim report and the report from David Relman's panel, which makes it somewhat confusing because, on the one hand, it repeats Relman's claim that "the syndrome could be the result of pulsed electromagnetic energy", but on the other hand, at least one of the two interviewed researchers, "Edward Barr, a former CIA officer who oversaw intelligence operations in 27 countries," thinks that the CIA interim report is "saying, ‘We’re supposed to determine if it was an attack from a foreign actor, and it’s not. But we're not done yet,'" which I think would be more comforting for the alleged victims than the idea that they are the victims of an attack:

But Havana syndrome sufferers—so named because the first cases were reported by Central Intelligence Agency employees working at the U.S. embassy in Havana, Cuba—can take comfort in a new report released Wednesday that says the syndrome could be the result of pulsed electromagnetic energy directed via focused radio waves.
More importantly for victims, the report pushes back on an argument made by some scientists that the syndrome is actually a mass psychogenic illness, or what used to be called mass hysteria.
Havana Syndrome Mysteries Slowly Revealed (Northeastern University, Feb 3, 2022)

What 'syndrome' sufferers can take comfort in, however, is what the other researcher, audiologist Nicole Laffan, has to say about relieving their symptoms with hearing aids:

“One of the things we find about tinnitus is that stress always exacerbates it, so this therapy can often change a patient’s perspective and remove a lot of the fear surrounding the symptoms,” says Laffan. Finding the right amplification for those suffering hearing loss is also important.
“Those individuals, when they’re wearing their hearing aids, almost always report that they don’t notice the tinnitus anymore,” says Laffan.

 

[dann]

Unlike the U.S. 60 Minutes, the Australian version has no problem finding experts who know about mass psychogenic illness in anxious people in stressful circumstances. It is no mystery why they nevertheless insist on calling it a mystery and saying that "doctors don't understand why" while in the same sentence saying that "it's a very real mental health condition."

It's not only strange, it's very worrying. The isolation and anxiety we endured because of COVID is having a lasting and unwanted effect on an increasing number of teenage girls - it appears to have given them a kind of Tourette's Syndrome. They're tic-ing uncontrollably. Doctors don't understand why but there's no doubt it's a very real mental health condition. And even more bizarrely, it seems popular TikTok videos are playing a role in it. For the young girls who are suffering, there's no filter, which is a way of warning you the language in this story is at times offensive.
The medical mystery linking TikTok to an explosion of severe tics in teens (60 Minutes Australia on YouTube, July 31, 2022 - 21:06 min.)

Not suitable for work:

 

[dann]

From trumpeting elephants to lovelorn crickets

Adrienne Mayor, a "Research Scholar, Classics and History and Philosophy of Science, Stanford University," didn't do her homework. Instead, she repeats the fairy tale about 'mysterious brain injuries'. In the paragraph Sound weapons in the modern era, she writes:

Since 2016, American diplomats in Cuba, Russia, China and elsewhere have experienced “Havana Syndrome,” associated with mysterious neurological and brain injuries thought to be inflicted by unknown high-powered microwave or targeted sonic energy systems. Sound wave transmitters are not only psychologically toxic but can cause pain and dizziness, burns, irreversible damage to inner ears and possibly neurological and internal injuries.
Since antiquity, human creativity in weaponizing devastating noise to confuse and overwhelm adversaries has progressed from intimidation to the infliction of physical injury.
From whistling arrows and trumpeting elephants to battle cries and eerie horns, ancient soldiers used sound to frighten and confuse their enemies (The Conversation, Aug 3, 2022)

Well, I guess that training crickets to confuse U.S. spies would be a pretty sophisticated way of "deploying sound in war."

 

[dann]

CIA's Mr. Burns acknowledges: No foreign adversary behind 'Havana Syndrome'

This is old news, but it bears repeating since the lie is being repeated all the time:

The CIA itself admitted in January 2022 that there was absolutely no proof of this, and its scientific experts concluded that Havana Syndrome is not caused by attacks by foreign adversaries. They found normal medical explanations for the condition’s very vague symptoms.
CIA Director William Burns himself has now publicly acknowledged that Havana Syndrome is not a result of attacks, in comments first reported by Kawsachun News.
CIA director admits media myth ‘Havana Syndrome’ is not foreign attack (Multipolarista, July 26, 2022)

After the corporate media spent years spreading the fake "Havana Syndrome" conspiracy theory, CIA Director William Burns admitted there is no evidence that a foreign country like Russia, China, or Cuba has attacked US spies and diplomats with "sonic attacks" or "directed energy weapons."
CIA director admits media myth 'Havana Syndrome' is not foreign attack (Multipolarista on YouTube, July 26, 2022 - 19:15 min.)

This is the part of the interview with CIA's Mr. Burns at the Aspen Security Forum where he is asked about the 'Havana Syndrome':

Director of the Central Intelligence Agency William J. Burns tries to back down from 6-year-old debunked claims of “Havana Syndrome” in an interview with NBC News Correspondent Andrea Mitchell at the Aspen Security Forum on Wednesday, July 20, 2022.
CIA Director backing down from “Havana Syndrome” lie (Kawsachun News, July 21, 2022 - 3:58)

The whole interview, 48:05 min. (begins at 3:14):

Watch Andrea Mitchell’s live interview with CIA Director William Burns as part of the Aspen Security Forum. NBCUniversal News Group is the media partner of the Aspen Security Forum.LIVE: Andrea Mitchell Interviews CIA Director William Burns (NBC News on YouTube, July 20, 2022)

 

[dann]

From a transcript of the interview with CIA's Mr. Burns. He says ...

... that we don’t assess that a foreign player or the Russians or anyone else is behind or is responsible for a sustained global campaign on the scale of what has been reported to harm U.S. personnel with a weapon or some kind of external device. We further stated publicly several months ago that in the majority of incidents and we’ve, you know, investigated each one as thoroughly as we possibly can, and we’re still working on a number of them that, you know, you could find reasonable alternative explanations, whether it was other environmental factors or preexisting medical conditions or other kind of medical explanations.

Andrea Mitchell: Congress has authorized compensation. How do you compensate if you don’t know what it is?

William J. Burns: Well, in some cases, you know, we’ve we’re very careful to implement the spirit of that law, which talks, you know, in very specific terms about the kind of injuries that people have suffered. And so it’s not a question of causation and it’s a question of what people have have gone through. And so, you know, we’ve already begun the process of implementation, and we’re going to work very hard at doing that because that’s what people deserve and what Congress expects.
CIA director admits there’s no ‘Havana syndrome’ (Kawsachun News, July 21, 2022)

 

[dann]

Located at 1628 E. North St., Clayton’s Deli offers a variety of hot and cold sandwiches as well as salads and side dishes, including:
The Lower East Side – House made pastrami on rye with spicy mustard
Havana Syndrome – Sliced mojo marinated pork, grilled ham, Swiss cheese and house pickles on Cuban breadMushy Feelings – A breaded and fried portabella mushroom cap with Swiss cheese and a rosemary lemon aioli on a potato roll
Clayton’s fries – House-made fries, gouda and cheddar cheese sauce, and thin-sliced pastrami
Clayton’s Deli, The Pound Cake Man open in Greenville (Greenville Journal, Aug 3, 2022)

What? No crickets?!

 

[dann]

Another one from Multipolarista (see post 1,577):

The CIA has long manipulated the media, spreading disinformation to justify US wars. Today just 11% of North Americans trust television news.
(...)
More recently, US media outlets were exposed for publishing blatantly fake stories about so-called Havana Syndrome, a vague medical condition allegedly affecting US spies and diplomats. Media networks claimed, without any evidence, that Russia, China, and/or Cuba were attacking US officials with futuristic “directed energy” weapons. The CIA later admitted that this was false.
Polls show almost no one trusts US media, after decades of war propaganda and lies (Multipolarista, July 30, 2022)