Havana Syndrome: Mass Psychogenic Illness and the Real Story Behind the Embassy Mystery and Hysteria By Robert W. Baloh,Robert E. Bartholomew

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Books,Medical Books,Medicine Havana Syndrome: Mass Psychogenic Illness and the Real Story Behind the Embassy Mystery and Hysteria Robert W. Baloh,Robert E. Bartholomew

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It is one of the most extraordinary cases in the history of science: the mating calls of insects were mistaken for a “sonic weapon” that led to a major diplomatic row. Since August 2017, the world media has been absorbed in the “attack” on diplomats from the American and Canadian Embassies in Cuba. While physicians treating victims have described it as a novel and perplexing condition that involves an array of complaints including brain damage, the authors present compelling evidence that mass psychogenic illness was the cause of “Havana Syndrome.” This mysterious condition that has baffled experts is explored across 11-chapters which offer insights by a prominent neurologist and an expert on psychogenic illness. A lively and enthralling read, the authors explore the history of similar scares from the 18th century belief that sounds from certain musical instruments were harmful to human health, to 19th century cases of “telephone shock,” and more contemporary panics involving people living near wind turbines that have been tied to a variety of health complaints. The authors provide dozens of examples of kindred episodes of mass hysteria throughout history, in addition to psychosomatic conditions and even the role of insects in triggering outbreaks. Havana Syndrome: Mass Psychogenic Illness and the Real Story Behind the Embassy Mystery and Hysteria is a scientific detective story and a case study in the social construction of mass psychogenic illness.

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It’s a hoax! Authors Baloh, Bartholomew, Cohn, and Petrie declare the Havana Syndrome is Mass Psychogenic Illness. In this book, they present their “evidence” to discredit the doctors who have examined, tested, and evaluated patients suffering from the diverse, bizarre, and debilitating symptoms which seemed to be an attack on diplomats in foreign countries. Havana Syndrome: Mass Psychogenic Illness and the Real Story Behind the Embassy Mystery and Hysteria seems to be another conspiracy theory of hypocrisy and projection.First, the authors condemn the University of Pennsylvania article published in the Journal of the American Medical Association in early 2018, which prompted headlines in media around the world. They claim that the peer reviewed article is based on “pseudoscience” and did not follow the scientific method. And they denounce the “impressive finding” of the article as based on “poor information, some deliberately false or misleading information” that “leads to real physical suffering and in the case of Havana illness to global consequences.”They “stated as facts” that what the State Department had “stated as facts” had been “propagated by well-meaning physicians, shady characters pursuing narrow fiscal interests, by journalists who are eager for a story (but short on thoughtful investigation) and by a generally credulous and uncritical public that chooses to trust its media and its government. Sounds to me like conspiracy theorists crying “fake news” and can’t trust “the deep state”. Who are these shady characters pursuing narrow fiscal interests? I did not find the interviews or surveys which were used to measure “shadiness or their pursuits”, which would be necessary according to the scientific method. I also could not find the interviews with journalists used to verify their motives and degree of thoughtful investigation.It seems that the authors, without medical degrees, have declared their absolute diagnosis of Mass Psychogenic Illness, without examining, evaluating, testing, interviewing, or any direct access to the patients. I believe that could be unethical and labeled pseudoscience.They contend there was some bias or worse in the findings by the physicians evaluating the patients, which seems very much like projection when one considers the probability of confirmation bias. What are the chances that Robert E. Bartholomew, Ph.D. would diagnose Mass Psychogenic Illness? His bio states he “has written extensively on the inappropriate placement of disease or disorder labels onto unpopular or unfamiliar behaviors. He has published on such topics as hoaxes, popular delusions, psychological disorders, the history of tabloid journalism, and pseudoscience and coined the term “exotic deviance” in the field of sociology. How impressive! And he has a Ph.D. in Sociology from James Cook University in Australia and he teaches History at Botany College in Auckland, New Zealand. Oh my, he is not a medical doctor, not a medical researcher, not a neurobiologist, not a psychiatrist, but he knows more than those professionals. The “expert” in hoaxes, who bolsters his credibility by proclaiming he “coined the term exotic deviance” and made his name and fame, and wealth from declaring “it’s a hoax”, has declared Havana Syndrome as a hoax. I have diagnosed their book as a case of narcissistic confirmation bias.Robert Baloh is a “distinguished professor” of Neurology and Head and Neck Surgery at the David Geffen School of Medicine, UCLA. He is the author of 11 books and over 300 articles in peer-reviewed science journals, he is a pioneer in the study of the vestibular system. It seems that Baloh had been consulted by the U of PA medical investigators early in their study and had invited him to review the article for publication. In fact, his name was to be included as an author due to his early input. Baloh found fault with the conclusions and noted numerous inconsistencies” recommending that JAMA reject it. When the UP medical team responded with an explanation defending the methodology, Baloh seemed offended by the response and their insolence in rejecting his critique. And his name was removed from the author list of the peer-reviewed article published in JAMA.Mark Cohen, Ph.D. expert in MRI technology, who was involved in the development of the functional MRI (fMRI), and professor of psychiatry, neurology, radiology, biomedical physics, psychology, and bioengineering at UCLA. Cohen, an author of the article, wrote Foreword II declaring that Bartholomew had “conducted a meticulous analysis of the Havana episode, drawing on all the available material and his considerable experience of similar illness outbreaks.” One wonders how Cohen defines “meticulous” when applied to a book declaring a medical diagnosis to a population without examination or evaluation or any access to those patients. Cohen also contends Bartholomew based his findings on all “available” material, and his “considerable” experience of similar illness outbreaks of Mass Psychogenic Illness. In mentioning “all available” information, perhaps a more honest statement would have acknowledged that all available information did not include access to the patients or their medical records and test results. In the book, Cohen is reported to have been upset when he requested the data and was refused. It may that his bruised ego influenced his criticism and participation in declaring the Havana Syndrome a hoax.Cohen expressed empathy for the “sufferers and victims” who are often “stigmatized”, but he is not referring to the sufferers and victims of Havana Syndrome being stigmatized, he is referring to the sufferers and victims of Mass Psychogenic Illness. He does not express any concern for the stigmatizing effect of this book on the sufferers and victims of Havana Syndrome.Keith Petrie, professor in New Zealand, has studied the nocebo and placebo effects. He has studied the health effects of wind turbines. Obviously not Trump’s source, who does not read the research, for his contention that wind turbines are dangerous to humans and bald eagles. Again, an expert in “nocebo effect” may be inclined to accept the diagnosis of mass hysteria.Page 2 declares “it never happened, there was no secret weapon and there was no attack”. Discrediting the JAMA article as “pseudoscience, a set of theories and claims that appear to be grounded in science and facts but do not follow the scientific model, the authors use a set of theories and claims that appear to be grounded in science and facts but do not follow the scientific model. The first 55 pages of this book cite statements and headlines in the media as the factors leading to mass hysteria, however, there was no evidence that these were analyzed according to the rigors of the scientific method. The last 133 pages cite cases that have been deemed as “mass hysteria”, however, none of them were actually studied according to the scientific model. They even cite a statement from 400 BC to prove a diagnosis of MPI, although there was no report that the scientific model was followed.The authors then cite symptoms reported by returning soldiers from wars, the Civil War to Afghanistan, as similar to the Havana Syndrome patients. Although soldiers were diagnosed as malingering for centuries, most reputable and knowledgeable psychiatrist, psychologists, researchers, and other medical professionals recognize Post Traumatic Stress Disorder as more than mass hysteria.Although the authors state that the symptoms associated with HS were similar to the symptoms associated with PTSD, they also declare that Havana Syndrome was not a syndrome because it did not have a consistent set of symptoms. This seems inconsistent, perhaps detracts from their argument based on contradictory statements. The book was published before the current CoVid 19 pandemic, but perhaps their arguments to discredit Havana Syndrome could be used to label COVID-19 19 as a hoax. It seems that people testing positive for COVID-19 19 also reported diverse, bizarre symptoms. In fact, there seems no explanation for the spectrum of symptoms, from no symptoms at all to death in patients from the elderly with pre-existing conditions to young healthy patients. My own 96-year-old mother had very mild symptoms and recovered in about a week, while healthy children were reported to have died from multiple organs shut down.Many of the arguments presented in the book to discredit the Havana Syndrome diagnosis are examples of fallacy arguments. For example, the ad hominem fallacy of attacking Marco Rubio’s credibility regarding his interest in uncovering the cause of the symptoms and suffering of American citizens. Arguing that Rubio had a bias against Cuba and believed the medical findings related to HS must mean the findings are not credible. Other arguments were characterized by the Appeal to Ignorance and Appeal to Authority fallacies, is the contention that experts in secret weapons, sonic weapons, or wave of energy know of no weapon which would cause these symptoms, proves that the symptoms could not be caused by a secret weapon. They cite a “former CIA agent” who stated, “No one has a device that could do this—no such device exists”. And a German physicist and acoustics expert said, “I know of no acoustic effect that can cause concussion symptoms”. So, the argued fallacy is if experts do not know of a device or secret weapon then it could not exist. I was a dairy princess many years ago, milked 23 cows each day before and after school, and did not know of any breed of cattle who routinely grew three or more horns. However, it seems the Three Horned breed of cattle existed despite my ignorance. Is it possible that a secret weapon exists, that is secret? The last fallacy used was the False Dichotomy fallacy, if such a weapon existed why wouldn’t it be used in war instead of on civilians. I can think of many reasons why a secret weapon might be used on diplomats, perhaps tested on civilians would be easier to isolate the effects than on a battlefield. Or perhaps it has been used on the battlefield but not recognized because the symptoms are similar to those incurred in war.In their attempt to discredit the JAMA article as not following the scientific method and should have been rejected, citing the findings were not presented in a neutral manner. They contend the biased nature was evident from the first page in the stated purpose of the study: To describe the neurological manifestations that followed exposure to an unknown energy source. The main criticism seems to be that the article refers to an unknown “energy source”. So, there was an assumption that something caused the symptoms and that it was most likely some sort of energy source. There has been no empirical, control group study of this phenomenon, the article simply reported the findings of a medical team who evaluated a group of people reporting similar symptoms from a similar environment, and they offered some possible causes and noted the limitations of their findings as required in journal protocol. Bartholomew and Baloh reveal their own bias in describing the required portion of every scientific article, as they were “forced” to admit the limitations of their article. Does one wonder what “force” they are claiming here, at gunpoint or under some other threat?The cause has been called “unknown” and “mysterious”, but several possible causes have been suggested and explored, claiming that none of the suggested causes were possible, does not prove that there was no such thing as an unknown cause could exist.Mass hysteria is dependent on subjects being aware of the phenomenon. Bartholomew and Baloh go to great lengths to establish that as more diplomatic staff heard of the Havana “incidents”, the more people came forth to report similar but inconsistent symptoms. However, in my personal experience, it is not true that everyone presenting with these symptoms was a diplomat or even a government agent. My own friend returned from South Korea in 2019 to seek medical treatment for bizarre but debilitating symptoms. Soon after her arrival in USA, she described what had happened to her in July 2017. She reported to me that she woke at 2 AM believing there had been an explosion outside her apartment building. When she tried to get out of bed, she was dizzy and disoriented, and she could not walk without balancing against the walls. She held her hands over her ears, feeling her head would explode from the loud drum-like noise. Then she became nauseated. Finally, she realized the loud noise was in her head and other people in her building had not heard it.As she was in Seoul to care for her grandchildren whose father was in the US military stationed there, she was military dependent and was taken to the ER on base. She reported these symptoms and was treated with disrespect and dismissed with no diagnosis but referred for further tests. She saw an ENT who told her she was going deaf rapidly and there was no treatment for it. When she sought a second opinion, the base doctor actually yelled at her saying “how dare” she question his diagnosis.For the next 2 years, she suffered horrible bouts of loud noises in her head, terrible splitting headaches, nausea, violent shaking, and tremors through her body. She could not sleep or eat. She continued to see other doctors and experience rude, dismissive treatment and was referred to the “behavioral health department” before she decided to return to the USA for medical help.My friend had never heard of the Havana Syndrome until 2 years later when I first mentioned it to her. She continues to suffer and she is still being dismissed and treated as though she is crazy or making up symptoms.The authors of Havana Syndrome, state their book is “not intended to undermine their personal stories and credibility”, but of course, that is exactly what it does.

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