Merged US may close Cuba Embassy over 'health attacks'

[dann]

Since my post above (2,100) about the AI-generated article, it seems to have disappeared, but the weird illustration can still be seen in Mark McCarron's tweet.

 

[Orphia Nay]

Thank you Dann, for continuing this thread. As the sister of a self-appointed "TI", who is now, unfortunately, teaching her teenage daughter this conspiracy theory, this is the most informative deep dive into Havana Syndrome that I've seen. I know my arguments won't change her mind, but at least I have a resource I can turn to when I myself have questions.

I'm glad you have this excellent resource. It's a pity in a way that the forum isn't really high in Google search results but then, we also dont get TIs arguing or spreading misinformation.

 

[dann]

I'm happy with the more than 300,000 views the thread has had so far. I would also have been happy with TIs joining the fray, but then it might have been necessary to split the thread and place much of it in Conspiracies and Conspiracy Theories.

The reason why I would have been happy with TIs participating is that Twitter/X's #HavanaSyndrome, #NeuroStrike, #TargetedIndividuals and probably many other ### have turned into echo chambers where TIs rile each other up and get all the wrong answers when they give 'advice' about how to self-diagnose 'attacks' or worry about yet another alleged sign that they are being 'targeted'. Recent case in point.

As mentioned in post 2,093, sometimes they actually appreciate corrections. Anxiety isn't fun.

 

[dann]

The 'syndrome' in pop culture: This time with Julia Roberts


The most recent one was mentioned in post 2,087. The trope appears to be gaining popularity among writers of sci-fi horror.

It’s then in a moment of terror, a painfully shrill noise blasts over the island and overpowers everyone around.
Eventually everyone comes to, seemingly unharmed.
(...)
G.H. takes Clay and Archie to Danny, a survivalist, for medication. Danny suggests that Archie's teeth falling out and the painful noise that everyone has experienced is the result of a microwave weapon. He also points out that Russia had recently recalled their staff from Washington D.C., suggesting America’s enemies had prior knowledge of the impending events.
Leave the World Behind (Wikipedia)

I wouldn't have known about the movie if it weren't for this tweet, recommending that people who have watched this new Netflix movie also listen to Adam Entous and Jon Lee Anderson's VICE podcast series:

Anyone who has watched this needs to listen to this fantastic podcast… #HavanaSyndrome
https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/havana-syndrome/id1661362245
Gru (Twitter/X, Dec 11, 2023)

(I don't know about the rest of you, but I can no longer watch Gru's tweets: "You’re unable to view this Post because this account owner limits who can view their Posts.")

The movie is based on Rumaan Alam's novel (Wikipedia) from 2020, which also includes the weird noises but doesn't seem to mention microwaves - at least not in Wikipedia's summary:

Rose, Archie and Clay return to the house after hearing loud noises, which crack the glass doors. (...) More loud noises ring out (from planes), and bats fall to the ground.

Both book and film got favorable reviews. It the context, it makes sense to make use of a sound like the one from old modems, which always reminded me of crickets:

Content warning: (the film, not the trailer) & deer. (Why don't we have an emoji for deer?!)


ETA: I haven't heard "teeth falling out" mentioned as a symptom of 'Havana Syndrome'!

 

[dann]

The 'syndrome' in pop culture, continued

They didn't allude to 'Havana syndrome' inadvertently:

What is “the noise”?
In the latter half of the film, the chaos ramps up, including a grating, screeching noise that echoes through Long Island. “When I read that in the book, I immediately got excited and spoke to my sound designer who I’ve worked with since the first season of Mr. Robot, Kevin Buchholz,” Esmail says. “Before we shot a frame of the film, we were trying to dial in this sound. We took elements of Havana Syndrome, which is a mysterious sound that they still have not gotten to the bottom of that has been causing people to have ailments.”
(...)
In the film, the noise seems to lead to some horrifying symptoms (see below), but in real life Esmail was the only victim. “My sound engineers, rightfully so, always put earplugs in every time that section came up [in the editing room]. I stupidly did not because I said, ‘Well, I want to hear what the audience is going to hear,’ ” Esmail recalls. “And I ended up actually losing a little bit of hearing in my right ear.” With this in mind, Esmail lowered the sound a bit in the film’s final mix. You’re welcome.
The One with the Apocalypse: Inside the Leave the World Behind Ending (Netflix, Dec 11, 2023)

Yes, they have! But what's the point?!


A film review:

In New York, leaflets reading Death to America in Arabic attack people. In California, the leaflets appear to come from North Korea. But wherever the leaflets come from, they confuse people into thinking they’re under attack by something.

This explains so little you might think I’m being facetious to which I can only say- disbelieve me and watch Leave the World Behind anyway at your own risk. The closest thing we get to an alternate explanation is Kevin Bacon as a doomsday prepper bribed with hard currency, that thing doomsday preppers definitely believe will be useful to them in the post-apocalypse. He also somewhat confusingly believes in Havana Syndrome and Russian/Cuban brain melting lasers. I describe this as confusing because while people consider this crank science today, it wasn’t in the long-ago time of 2020 when the novel on which the movie is based originally came out, so I have no idea if this was supposed to qualify as an actual explanation for why the kid’s teeth fall out, or why the deer are swarming, or why self-driving Tesla cars are trying to escape to the expressway.
Respect Our Society…Or Else (Book and Film Globe, Dec 12, 2023)

That Kim Jong-un appears to have been made the perpetrator this time instead of Castro, Putin and/or Xi is new! Who's next?!

 

[dann]

EnergyPortal.eu tries again - still AI-generated

This is not the first time I have come across articles about the 'syndrome' that appear to be have been AI-generated. See post 2,018.

But this one, Symptoms of Havana Syndrome: Understanding the Health Condition (EnergyPortal.eu, Dec 6, 2023), even has an AI-generated illustration! The building appears to be a mixture of Hotel Nacional and the US Capitol or the Capitolio de la Habana. Maybe there's even a bit of Mar-a-lago in there as well, I'm not sure.

The building is surround by bits of weird text, e.g. "Changes of auritalal perseption," "Henercy issues," "Memory isse expeeirced." (And these are some of the less weird ones!)

And then there's this:

Sources:
– CNN
– NPR
– BBC News

Which is about as useful as Sources: The internet! would be.

And it isn't any better this time.
Not only does the illustration still appear to be AI-generated. Notice the letters on the building, for instance. Not any language I'm familiar with. And it has nothing whatsoever to do with the 'syndrome'.

And then there's this:

Sources:
– [Source 1](https://www.example.com)
– [Source 2](https://www.example.com)
Havana Syndrome Symptoms: What You Need to Know (EnergyPortal.eu, Dec 12, 2023)

Maybe some day they'll make it look like something written by actual writers and illustrators. By the way, this time they've used another name:

By Alan Caldwell
Alan Caldwell is a respected authority and prolific writer on the subject of urban renewable energy systems in American cities.

 

[Planigale]

And it isn't any better this time.
Not only does the illustration still appear to be AI-generated. Notice the letters on the building, for instance. Not any language I'm familiar with. And it has nothing whatsoever to do with the 'syndrome'.

And then there's this:



Maybe some day they'll make it look like something written by actual writers and illustrators. By the way, this time they've used another name:

Intrusions from the multiverse. There is informational leakage at the quantum level so expect to see more documents from other universes appearing on the www.

 

[dann]

I thought those leaks only occurred in the shape of old 8mm films.


It's worse than I ever imagined.

 

[dann]

https://socom.mil/care-coalition/SiteAssets/Cota - AHI_Acute Assessment Training_2023.02.14 Cota.pdf
Authoritative discussion of evaluating AHI (Havana syndrome) pts. Note:
“No evidence-based, AHI-specific clinical tool exists that can discriminate presenting symptoms from other medical conditions…alternative …diagnoses” should be considered.
Kenneth Foster (Twitter/X, Nov 30, 2023)

The last part of the same paragraph is also interesting:

AHI Acute Assessment Overview
No evidence-based, AHI-specific clinical tool exists that can discriminate presenting symptoms from other medical conditions AHI Acute Assessment (DHA Form 244) should be utilized on all who meet criteria of both a sensory event and associated onset of symptoms
 AHI is akin to traumatic brain injury (TBI) in terms of reported symptoms, assessment findings, and effective treatments delivered
 Therefore, many sections of the tool are adopted/modified from TBI-specific evaluations
 Since many individuals who have been treated immediately after an event have improved, prompt medical evaluation and care is paramount
 DHA Form 244 should be administered within 7 days of sensory event
 Evaluation should include strong consideration of alternative explanatory diagnoses for patient symptoms (e.g., stroke, migraine, infection, head trauma, vestibular neuritis, acute anxiety disorder, labyrinthitis, etc.)Anomalous Health Incident (AHI) Acute Assessment Training (Defense Health Agency - Department of Defense, Feb 14, 2023)

As is the list of AHI symptoms, but we have seen similar lists several times before:

• Reported sensory events
 Loud sounds
- unilateral or bilateral
- chirping, screeching or clicking
 Pressure
 Heat
 Vibrations

• Reported symptoms
 Immediate or gradual onset
 Persistent or recurrent
- Dizziness
- Headache
- Nausea
- Fatigue
- Impaired balance
- Impaired concentration
- Impaired memory
- Sleep disturbance
- Depression
- Irritability
- Nervousness
- Heightened emotions
- Visual disturbance
- Hearing changes

Especially in comparison with the symptoms of MPI:
(The numbers are "Percent reporting")

Headache 67
Dizziness or light-headedness 46
Nausea 41
Abdominal cramps or pain 39
Cough 31
Fatigue, drowsiness or weakness 31
Sore or burning throat 30
Hyperventilation or difficulty breathing 19
Watery or irritated eyes 13
Chest tightness/chest pain 12
Inability to concentrate/trouble thinking 11
Vomiting 10
Tingling, numbness or paralysis 10
Anxiety or nervousness 8
Diarrhea 7
Trouble with vision 7
Rash 4
Loss of consciousness/syncope 4
Itching
Mass psychogenic illness: Common symptoms (Wikipedia)

 

[dann]

The 'syndrome' in pop culture, continued ...

... from posts 2,104 and 2,105.

This hasn't made conspiracy nuts and conservative racists-pretending-to-be-antiracists less inclined to think the Illuminati is behind the film:
Leave the World Behind's Surprising Obama Connection - The former president executive-produced the apocalyptic drama, but director Sam Esmail says he also influenced the plot. (Men's Health, Dec 12, 2023)

The apocalyptic thriller “Leave the World Behind,” an adaptation of Rumaan Alam’s critically acclaimed novel, the No. 1 film in the U.S. on Netflix this week. It is the first feature film from High Ground, the production company founded by former President Barack Obama and his wife, Michelle Obama, in 2018, and it success has predictably attracted the ire of some conservative critics who remain fixated on the Obamas and are resentful of their popularity.
(...)
Conservatives fixating on a character’s distrust of white people as a “gotcha” moment either misunderstand the intense or layered film, or, more likely, haven’t bothered to watch it and are looking for a reason to attack the Obamas. Even more, they are looking for an opportunity to undermine a story about how we might transcend our racial antagonisms, preferring that we stay ensnarled in them.
Conservatives fixate on one line in ‘Leave the World Behind’ and miss the point (MSNBC, Dec 14, 2023)

 

[dann]

Mark McCarron (post 2,100 and 2,102) is still trying to promote his idea that the 'syndrome' was caused by BCI (Wikipedia), and he is still linking to AI-generated articles, but this time he has found a study that appears to be genuine research:

"Likewise, the elevated IL-10 predicted by the current model is consistent with the literature documenting the immunomodulatory influences of pulsed electromagnetic fields (PEMF) and pulsed radiofrequency energy (PRFE)." #havanasyndrome
]Mark McCarron (Twitter/X, Dec 18, 2023)

He doesn't include a link or the title of the publication, but it is this one:
A regulatory pathway model of neuropsychological disruption in Havana syndrome (NIH, Oct 27, 2023)
I already mentioned the study in post 2,098 after TI Len Ber had referred to it as proof that "The torture continues." Len Ber's claim was that the study "dismantles the Functional Neurological Disorder Hypothesis of this non-kinetic brain injury."

It also sounds like real solid research, doesn't it? Who, other than real researchers or maybe MDs, know what IL-10 is, right?!
However:

Recent studies from our laboratory indicate that psychological stress is a potent inducer of the anti-inflammatory cytokine interleukin (IL)-10, raising the possibility that the IL-10 family of cytokines may be key mediators of stress-induced immunosuppression.
Psychological stress increases expression of IL-10 and its homolog IL-19 via β-adrenoceptor activation: Reversal by the anxiolytic chlordiazepoxide (ScienceDirect from Brain, Behavior, and Immunity, Volume 23, Issue 3, March 2009, Pages 371-379)

So once again, something that can be induced by psychological stress is seen as proof against "the Functional Neurological Disorder Hypothesis," as Len Ber claims, or as the study puts it, much more modestly, a raised level of IL-10 "is consistent with" a ray-gun attack.
Yeah, right!

 

[dann]

Simon Wessely has been mentioned a couple of times in the thread, most recently in a quotation from The Guardian in post 2,078.
Wessely is one of the authors of a new article, Health Scares: Tracing Their Nature, Growth and Spread.

The abstract doesn't mention 'Havana Syndrome', but I assume that it appears in the article as an example of (imaginary) malicious intent: evil adversaries with directed-energy weapons. I hope that antivaxxers and anti-maskers are analyzed in the category public health interventions.

Background:
Health scares are highly publicised threats to health that increase public concern and protective behaviours but are later shown to be unfounded. Although health scares have become more common in recent times, they have received very little research attention. This is despite the fact that health scares often have negative outcomes for individuals and community by affecting health behaviours and causing high levels of often unnecessary anxiety.
Method: In this paper we undertook a review and analysis of the major types of health scares as well as the background factors associated with health scares and their spread.
Results: We found most health scares fell into seven main categories; environmental contaminants, food, malicious incidents, medical treatments, public health interventions, radiation from technology and exotic diseases. For most health scares there are important background factors and incident characteristics that affect how they develop. Background factors include conspiracy theories, trust in governmental agencies, anxiety, modern health worries and wariness of chemicals. Incident characteristic include being newly developed, not understood or unseen, man-made rather than natural and whether the incident is out of personal control. We also identified the aspects of traditional and social media that exacerbate the rapid spread of health scares.
Conclusion: More research is needed to identify the characteristics of media stories that intensify the levels of public concern. Guidelines around the media’s reporting of health incidents and potential health threats may be necessary in order to reduce levels of public anxiety and the negative public health impact of health scares.
Health Scares: Tracing Their Nature, Growth and Spread (Clinical Psychology in Europe, Vol. 5 No. 4 (2023), Dec 22)

 

[dann]

I guess this was lawyer Mark Zaid's Christmas for his clients in the 'Havana syndrome' cohort, but a couple of TIs have embraced it, too:

Interesting that @CIA denies Anomalous Health Incidents (#AHI) exist, yet it patents ways to study it.
We know the truth.
Mark S. Zaid (Twitter/X, Dec 23, 2023)

 

[thines]

The paper in Clinical Psychology in Europe does not mention the Havana Syndrome, I'd guess because it is a rather localized example. But the paper is open access. Here's the link:

https://cpe.psychopen.eu/index.php/cpe/article/view/12209/12209.html

 

[dann]

Great! Thanks!

I wouldn't describe the 'syndrome' as localized since it spread to all continents with the exception of Antarctica, but the authors of the article are from Germany, New Zealand and the UK, which might explain why they wouldn't be particularly interested in U.S. diplomats and spies or even TIs, but the reason they aren't mentioned is probably another: It's a paper about health scares, not about MPI.

This is Wikipedia's definition of a health scare:

A health scare can be broadly defined as a social phenomenon whereby the public at large comes to fear some threat to health, based on suppositions which are nearly always not well-founded.

The (very short!) Wikipedia article mentions these examples from an ABC News article:

Swine flu (H1N1)
Bisphenol A (BPA)
Lead paint on toys from China
Trans fats*
Bird flu (H5N1)
Severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS)
Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA)
Hormone replacement therapy (HRT)
Anthrax
Cell phones.

* Wikipedia's article about trans fats mentions this example:

It is hypothesized that the Danish government's efforts to decrease trans fat intake from 6 g to 1 g per day over 20 years is related to a 50% decrease in deaths from ischemic heart disease.

And in the USA, the "ban is believed to prevent about 90,000 premature deaths annually," so some health scares are rational, but the new paper focuses on irrational health scares.

It mentions vaccine scares. It also mentions EHS:

Scares involving radiation from technology centre on the perceived harm of invisible electromagnetic fields, such as those from mobile phones, Wi-Fi or 5G, which do not have a physical effect no health (Rubin et al., 2010). A previous study has shown that when highly anxious participants are shown a television documentary about the possible health effects of Wi-Fi they are more likely to report symptoms after exposure to a sham Wi-Fi signal and to decide they were sensitive to electromagnetic fields (Witthöft & Rubin, 2013).

 

[dann]

A TI linked to this (pretty old) article:

"The phenomenon is tunable in that the characteristic sounds and intensities of those sounds depend on the characteristics of the RF energy as delivered," the report explains. "Because the frequency of the sound heard is dependent on the pulse characteristics of the RF energy, it seems possible that this technology could be developed to the point where words could be transmitted to be heard like the spoken word, except that it could only be heard within a person´s head. In one experiment, communication of the words from one to ten using ´speech modulated´ microwave energy was successfully demonstrated. Microphones next to the person experiencing the voice could not pick up these sounds. Additional development of this would open up a wide range of possibilities."
Pentagon report investigated lasers that put voices in your head (phys.org, Feb 18, 2008)

It seems to confirm what I wrote two years ago in post 1,040:

It just occurred to me that there was another inconsistency in the NBC News interview with the two diplomats (?) from the U.S. embassy in Havana.
From my transcription in post 1,023:

Journalist: In the winter of 2016, diplomats Kate Husband and Doug Ferguson were working at the U.S. embassy in Havana, Cuba. Their nights at home interrupted by a piercing noise coming form the backyard.
Ferguson: I'll just play it for you so you can hear it. (Plays recording of sound on cell phone)Husband: It was a lot worse.
Husband: It was persistent. Kind of at the same level all the time. Very, very loud. It's nothing you could sit with.
Journalist:Kate, did anyone else in your neighborhood have this experience at their homes?
Husband:Yeah, on our right was another embassy family. And then the people on our left, across the street from us, were both Canadian embassy families. And in the end, all four households were diagnosed.

These people and their lawyers should consider which theory they are going for:

1) If they insist that they were the victims of sonic attacks, they can continue to play the cricket tapes as evidence, but no expert will believe that it is anything other than the sound of crickets, and crickets can't cause brain damage or impair your hearing unless, as one of the experts put it, you take the cricket and stuff it into the ear canal of the victim.

2) If they insist on the Frey effect (Wikipedia), i.e. that they were harmed by pulsated microwave energy weapons, they will have to give up on the tapes since their recordings don't rhyme with the Frey effect:

In 1961, the American neuroscientist Allan H. Frey studied this phenomenon and was the first to publish information on the nature of the microwave auditory effect. The cause is thought to be thermoelastic expansion of portions of the auditory apparatus, although competing theories explain the results of holographic interferometry tests differently.

They probably haven't considered this, but the Frey effect is all in your head. Not as a hallucination. It is not a psychological phenomenon, but it is a 'sound' in your head, literally, not coming from your backyard, and thus it can't be recorded using your cell phone as a recording device. (Nor can it probably be recorded using any other kind of device.)

This is the reason why you never hear about recordings of the Frey effect. You only hear about how it is perceived by people who are exposed to microwaves and experience it.

 

[dann]

Sergio Della Sala wrote about a commentary by the two Roberts, Baloh and Bartholomew, that hasn't been published yet but soon will be in the International Journal of Social Psychiatry.

Two other texts about the 'syndrome' in the same issue:
Della Sala: Politics dictating on science is like a gunshot in a concert (published online Oct 27, 2023)
Mitchell Valdes-Sosa: When politics obstructs self-correction in science (published online Oct 31, 2023)

The new issue of the International Journal of Social Psychiatry has now been published. It also contains Robert Baloh and Robert Bartholomew's review article, "Havana Syndrome": A post mortem (Sage Journals, International Journal of Social Psychiatry, Dec 25, 2023), and R. Douglas Fields' editorial, Why the Havana Syndrome Happened (Sage Journals, International Journal of Social Psychiatry, Dec 25 2023).

Douglas Fields describes Baloh and Bartholomew's conclusion as "a well-sourced and clearly articulated argument" and finds it unfortunate that "similar arguments have been made before, beginning with thorough investigations by Cuban authorities and the FBI immediately after the first announcement in 2016 that US embassy personnel in Havana had suffered traumatic brain injury from a new type of sonic weapon. The thorough Cuban investigation was dismissed as not credible because of an apparent conflict of interest to cover up the scandal, but the FBI's investigation also found the fear to be baseless."

A loss of credibility in medical professionals and scientists is what launched the misdiagnosis and perpetuated it, but why? It has never been adequately explained why the US embassy in Havana sent their personnel with health concerns to an ear nose and throat doctor in private practice in Miami who has a checkered past (Department of Defense Office of Inspector General, 2011), rather than availing itself of the renowned medical resources available to the federal government. That Miami physician and his compatriots concluded that all the patients they examined with various health complaints were suffering from the same disorder. Moreover, that all the patients had experienced traumatic brain injury, not natural disease, from a clandestine sonic weapon, the likes of which the world has never seen.

Even though no name is mentioned, I can't help thinking that the "Miami physician" with the checkered past might be none other than the Miami doctor who diagnosed TIs with the 'Havana syndrome'.
The 'checkered past' is a reference to this link: Assessment of Allegations Concerning Traumatic Brain Injury Research Integrity in Iraq (Redacted) (Mar 31, 2011)

One of problems mentioned in the report is that "patients were exposed to possible coercion and undue influence," which I find interesting considering this from the Baloh & Bartholomew article: "Keywords: iatrogenesis, mass psychogenic illness, somatoform disorders"

 

[dann]

Additional symptoms of 'Havana syndrome'

Since post 2,099, we know that "puffiness under the eyes" is a symptom of 'Havana syndrome'.

A couple of new symptoms have been added to the list since then: stomach rumble and twitching muscles.

Pulsed EMF in the stomach or intestines may induce vibrations in gas bubbles, causing internal pressure changes and turbulence. This phenomenon could explain audible gurgles in the digestive tract when hit with directed energy weapons.
#TargetedIndividuals #HavanaSyndrome
Targeted Individuals U.S.A (Twitter/X, Dec , 2023)

Other TIs have posted footage of their twitching muscles, claiming that it's a symptom of DEW attacks.
They tend to block me when I tweet about the most likely cause of twitching muscles: benign (!) fasciculation syndrome!

 

[dann]

The new issue of the International Journal of Social Psychiatry has now been published. It also contains Robert Baloh and Robert Bartholomew's review article, "Havana Syndrome": A post mortem (Sage Journals, International Journal of Social Psychiatry, Dec 25, 2023), and R. Douglas Fields' editorial, Why the Havana Syndrome Happened (Sage Journals, International Journal of Social Psychiatry, Dec 25 2023).

Douglas Fields describes Baloh and Bartholomew's conclusion as "a well-sourced and clearly articulated argument" and finds it unfortunate that "similar arguments have been made before, beginning with thorough investigations by Cuban authorities and the FBI immediately after the first announcement in 2016 that US embassy personnel in Havana had suffered traumatic brain injury from a new type of sonic weapon. The thorough Cuban investigation was dismissed as not credible because of an apparent conflict of interest to cover up the scandal, but the FBI's investigation also found the fear to be baseless."


Even though no name is mentioned, I can't help thinking that the "Miami physician" with the checkered past might be none other than the Miami doctor who diagnosed TIs with the 'Havana syndrome'.
The 'checkered past' is a reference to this link: Assessment of Allegations Concerning Traumatic Brain Injury Research Integrity in Iraq (Redacted) (Mar 31, 2011)

One of problems mentioned in the report is that "patients were exposed to possible coercion and undue influence," which I find interesting considering this from the Baloh & Bartholomew article: "Keywords: iatrogenesis, mass psychogenic illness, somatoform disorders"

Curious development: Len Ber requests that R. Douglas Fields retract the review article by Baloh and Bartholomew:

Here is my letter sent to the editor @rdouglasfields1 requesting a retraction of the article by Dr. Robert Bartholomew
https://lenbermd.substack.com/p/my-letter-to-the-editor-of-the-international
Len Ber MD (Twitter/X, Dec 28, 2023)

His Substack argument is based on this alleged quotation:

biomarkers associated with mild traumatic brain injury and concussion, called neurofilament light chain (NfL) protein and glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP), have been found to be elevated in patients with AHI. Levels return to normal within a few weeks, which matches the time-course of said biomarkers following mTBI, indicating damage to the BBB (Blood-Brain Barrier) and neural injury.
My Letter To The Editor of The International Journal of Social Psychiatry, Dr. R. Douglas Fields (Len Ber on Substack, Dec 28, 2023)

However, even though I don't remember ever hearing about NfL or GFAP before (if I have, it would have been in this context), it didn't take me long to find this:

Highlights
• Plasma NfL, GFAP and p-tau181 were measured using highly sensitive Simoa technology.
• Plasma levels of NfL and GFAP were increased in patients with exhaustion disorder.
• Patients had normal levels of NfL and GFAP at long-term follow-up.
(...)
In Sweden, stress-related mental disorders have increased the most, and among these, exhaustion disorder (ED) is the most common diagnosis (Försäkringskassan [The Swedish Social Insurance Agency], 2020). ED is a stress-induced disorder characterized by physical and mental symptoms of exhaustion, markedly reduced mental energy, memory impairment, sleep disturbance, emotional instability, and intolerance to stress (National Board of Health and Welfare, 2003). The symptoms of ED and burnout are overlapping and most patients with ED also report high burnout scores (Jonsdottir et al., 2009). In addition, comorbid anxiety and depression are common (Glise et al., 2012). The diagnostic criteria were established by the Swedish National Board of Health and Welfare in 2003 and ED was assigned the code F43.8A in the Swedish version of ICD-10.
Biomarkers of brain injury in patients with stress-related exhaustion: A longitudinal study (ScienceDirect/Psychoneuroendocrinology, Volume 146, December 2022)

For some reason, microwaves, DEWs, Havana syndrome and NeuroStrike don't appear in the study at all. Neither does Len Ber's new name for the 'syndrome', "NKBI (Non-kinetic Brain injury, formerly Havana Syndrome)."

 

[dann]

The 'Havana Syndrome' and mental illness

A TI posted this:

Another person claiming to be targeted by #havanasyndrome commits an act of murder
https://yakimaherald.com/news/north...cle_88cadefd-478c-5e56-ade2-ca5f7d5d928a.html
#TargetedIndividuals
Targeting Must End (Dec 27, 2023)

From the linked article:

At one point, Davis became convinced he was suffering from "Havana Syndrome."The syndrome refers to a mysterious series of symptoms with no clear cause that has sickened U.S. career diplomats, intelligence officers and others serving in federal embassies.
Davis never worked in an embassy, but he believed he had been targeted by government agents who were committed to "turning him into a terror cell," according to the state report.
(...)
He said he believed he was targeted with an ultrasonic weapon by either Russia, China or United States agents. He believed they wanted to make the pain bad enough that he would lash out.
"I believe that a lot of people are in on the take, knowing full well I'm being targeted by the government," he wrote in a letter to the psychologists. "I never mentioned a number of these issues for fear of coming across as crazy."
Alexander Patterson, the psychologist hired by Davis' defense attorney, previously found that Davis' schizophrenia prevented him from understanding that his actions were wrong.
Patterson concluded that "his specific recollections of his mental health on the day in question were fragmented and vague, but he recalled believing he was being subjected to 'ultrasonic poisoning,'" according to the state's report.
'I've murdered children.' Man accused of killing Pasco bus driver left a chilling note (Yakima Herald-Republic, Dec 22, 2023)

Unfortunately, the TI community encourages this line of thinking. TIs on Twitter/X confirm each other's stories and back up the delusion that this particular TI believed in, i.e. that he was "being targeted by the government."

It is impossible to know if attempts to make him see reason would have have stopped him from killing the bus driver. I don't think that any TIs would have encouraged him to do so, but they support his delusion, the idea that "he was targeted with an ultrasonic weapon."