Nation Must Come Together to Tackle Havana Syndrome.

• Author: Giordano, James
• Position: Viewpoint

* In late August, members of Vice President Kamala Harris' advanced entourage during a trip to Vietnam reported "anomalous health incidents" that were assessed to be similar to what has been referred to as "Havana syndrome."

U.S. personnel in Germany have also reported symptoms and signs of what is suspected to be Havana syndrome. This phenomenon--first identified in 2016 by reports from governmental personnel working at the U.S. embassy in Havana, Cuba--is a cluster of subjective symptoms and objective signs that include feelings of pressure in the head, vertigo and an array of cognitive effects such as loss of vigilance, problems concentrating, difficulty with learning and remembering, and impairments of "executive function," which is defined as planning and enacting various activities of daily living.

These reported symptoms have been corroborated by clinical findings that include dysfunction in the inner ear balance organs, and neuropsychologcal features that are similar to mild traumatic brain injury.

However, none of the individuals affected reported such prior or recent injury. This prompted questions about what may be responsible for these signs and symptoms. Despite some initial speculation that various environmental events--such as crickets, industrial noise and artifacts of sounds produced by various electronic equipment in the affected individuals' apartments--each and all of these speculations were disproven.

Moreover, conjecture that these signs and symptoms may represent some form of psychogenic illness--in other words, a type of mass hysteria--were also disproven in light of evidence regarding the time sequence and occurrence of events.

These findings fostered additional questions, concerns and progressive inquiry as to the source of these anomalous health incidents in the two dozen affected individuals in Havana. It was originally believed that most probable was some form of directed energy; likely a sonic device. There was discussion as to whether this may have been an artifact of surveillance technology, or whether it was an intentional engagement to affect the capability and health of those individuals targeted.

To date, it remains unclear whether a surveillance component was indeed operative; but what is clear is that the individuals were selectively identified and targeted.

Information provided both immediately subsequent to the Havana incidents and over the next three years, fortified the probability that a directed...