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posted by Fnord666 on Friday July 10 2020, @11:58AM   Printer-friendly
from the overworked-and-underpaid dept.

Authors of the new Springer book identify mass psychogenic illness as the likely cause of Havana Syndrome, a mysterious condition affecting American and Canadian diplomats stationed in Cuba between 2016 and 2019.

Dozens of embassy staff reported an array of complaints that have baffled the medical community, the most prominent being concussion-like symptoms without head trauma. U.S. Government physicians have promoted the theory that the diplomats and their families were the victims of a sonic attack. Studies of the embassy patients have been inconclusive. In their book Havana Syndrome: Mass Psychogenic Illness and the Real Story Behind the Embassy Mystery and Hysteria, the authors Robert W. Baloh and Robert E. Bartholomew observe that the outbreak is notably similar to the appearance of 'shell shock' and other combat syndromes. The two medical experts conclude that neurological complaints from an overstimulated nervous system have been misdiagnosed as concussions and brain damage when the real cause is stress.

Havana Syndrome

[Source]: Springer Book

However, I think this mystery is far from solved. For example: Why were diplomats & embassy staff, predominantly from the US and Canada, affected?, Why not other American citizens? Why only between the years 2016 and 2019? Why not before or after? What do you guys think about this?

[Ed Note: Fixed date in last paragraph. Thanks c0lo!]


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  • (Score: 0, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 10 2020, @06:16PM (3 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 10 2020, @06:16PM (#1019175)

    People just got all verklempt over Trump

    Same thing goes for this "pandemic". It's all mass hysteria

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  • (Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 10 2020, @06:31PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 10 2020, @06:31PM (#1019180)

    aww da po baybee got downmudded awwww po baybee boooooo

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 11 2020, @01:05AM (1 child)

    by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 11 2020, @01:05AM (#1019300)

    Good question... My impotent governor says I am supposed to visit my doctor over the phone.

    Yet mandates I show up in person at the DMV to renew my driver license... Despite the fact I have not infracted as much as a parking ticket.

    We are killing all these businesses by depriving them of human contact, yet the government exempts themselves from their own law.

    I'm still curious how restaurants can survive this.

    Some around here have already put up "Closed for Good" signs, and Norms ("We Never Close") still has chains on the door.

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 11 2020, @01:26AM

      by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 11 2020, @01:26AM (#1019316)

      Yet mandates I show up in person at the DMV to renew my driver license

      There are state security considerations at play there.

      I'm still curious how restaurants can survive this.

      For the government it is "why don't they eat cake?".

      But restaurant finance is a funny thing. A prime location storefront announced they were going to be a West-Chinese restaurant, signs were installed, and the place sat empty with hardly any activity for 2 years. Then it was opened as a Japanese restaurant, under the same management AFAICT. My normal self with university level economics education cannot grasp how one makes lease payments for a prime location for 2 years to then open selling $10 ramen bowls. They could have bought the building, but it still seems a misapplication of resources.

      Now with the government idiocy, landlords are forced to eat the shortfall when lessors don't pay. They could move for eviction, but they would have to find a new lessor, and who would want to open a restaurant with this kind of regime uncertainty? Restaurants find less slack with their suppliers though. With the on again, off again carousel of opening for business, much food is forced to be disposed of, and they need to repurchase it when they are allowed to open again.