Havana syndrome

A variety of symptoms are associated with Havana Syndrome, including dizziness, headaches, pain, and cognitive problems. Signs and symptoms Most of the affected individuals reported an acute onset of neurological symptoms associated with a perceived localized loud sound such as screeching, chirping, clicking, or piercing noises. A 2024 review article by Connolly et al., surveying multiple peer-reviewed studies, concluded that the cause of AHIs is still unknown. The review discussed several possible causes, including mass psychogenic illness and head trauma, but did not endorse a specific cause. 130 people in May 2021, ==Locations==

People have reported experiencing AHIs in about a dozen countries, and in a variety of circumstances, including in hotels, at home, while in vehicles, and while walking a dog in the suburbs. Cuba U.S. personnel In August 2017, reports began surfacing that American and Canadian diplomatic personnel in Cuba had experienced unusual, unexplained health problems dating to late 2016. As of June 2018, the number of American citizens experiencing symptoms was 26. The original 21 events in Cuba were characterized as starting with strange grating noises coming from a specific direction. Some people reported pressure, vibration, or a sensation comparable to driving a car with the window partly rolled down. These noises lasted from 20 seconds to 30 minutes and happened while the diplomats were either at home or in hotel rooms. Other people nearby (including family members and guests in neighboring rooms) did not experience the same symptoms. In 2017, the U.S. State Department concluded that the health problems were either the result of an attack or due to exposure to an unknown device, but that it was not blaming the Cuban government, and would not say who was to blame. Speculation centered around a sonic weapon, with some researchers pointing to infrasound as a possible cause. Affected people described symptoms such as hearing loss, memory loss, and nausea. In August 2017, the United States expelled two Cuban diplomats in retaliation for perceived Cuban responsibility. In October 2017, President Donald Trump said he believed that Cuba was responsible for the occurrences, calling them a "very unusual attack". In response to the incidents, the U.S. State Department announced in March 2018 that it would continue to staff its embassy in Havana at the minimum level required to perform core diplomatic and consular functions; the embassy had been operating under "ordered departure status" since September 2017, but the status was set to expire. This announcement extended the staff reductions indefinitely. Canadian personnel In March 2018, some Canadian diplomats traveled to Pittsburgh to consult with the neurologist that had previously diagnosed brain issues in US diplomats. The neurologist concluded that MRIs of the Canadians showed evidence of brain damage that was similar to what the neurologist reported for the American counterparts. In early 2018, Global Affairs Canada ended family postings to Cuba and withdrew all staff with families. Several of the Canadians who were affected in 2017 were reported to still be unable to resume their work due to the severity of their ailments. The lack of knowledge of the cause of Havana syndrome, , had made it challenging for the Royal Canadian Mounted Police to investigate. In 2019, the Canadian government announced that it was reducing its embassy staff in Havana after a 14th Canadian diplomat reported symptoms of Havana syndrome in late December 2018. Beyond Cuba Beginning in late 2017, suspected attacks targeting U.S. intelligence personnel were reported in an expanding set of locations around the world, The Russian embassy in Australia dismissed reports of Russian operatives targeting CIA personnel in Australia. China of the United States in Guangzhou Starting in early 2018, U.S. diplomats in China began reporting symptoms consistent with Havana syndrome. The first such incident was reported by an American diplomat in China in April 2018 at the Guangzhou consulate, the largest U.S. consulate in China. The employee reported that he had been experiencing symptoms since late 2017. Several individuals were taken to the U.S. for medical examination. A USAID employee at the U.S. embassy in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, reported a different incident in September 2017; the employee's report was discounted by the U.S. State Department. Answering questions from the House Foreign Affairs Committee in May 2018, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo testified that U.S. diplomatic staff in Guangzhou had reported symptoms "very similar" to, and "entirely consistent" with, those reported from Cuba. On June 6, 2018, The New York Times reported that at least two additional U.S. diplomats stationed at the Guangzhou consulate had been evacuated from China and reported that "it remains unclear whether the illnesses are the result of attacks at all. Other theories have included toxins, listening devices that accidentally emitted harmful sounds, or even mass hysteria." and expanded their health warning to all of mainland China amid reports some US diplomats outside of Guangzhou had experienced the same symptoms resembling a brain injury. The warning told anyone who experienced "unusual acute auditory or sensory phenomena accompanied by unusual sounds or piercing noises" to "not attempt to locate their source". Elsewhere in Asia In August 2021, it was reported that two American diplomats were evacuated from Hanoi, Vietnam, after incidents of Havana syndrome were reported. These reported cases also delayed Vice President Kamala Harris's visit to Vietnam. In September 2021, an aide-de-camp of CIA director William J. Burns reported symptoms consistent with those of Havana syndrome on a diplomatic visit to India. Both incidents were similar to those that were reported to have struck dozens of U.S. personnel overseas, including CIA and State Department personnel. The State Department confirmed in July 2021 that it was investigating the reports. The Austrian foreign ministry stated it was collaborating with American investigators. Aside from Havana, Vienna has reported the most incidents. In September 2021, the CIA station chief in Vienna (the top U.S. intelligence officer in the country) was recalled over concerns over his management; he had been criticized for not taking quicker action in response to the Havana syndrome cases at his post. Several new cases were reported at the embassy in October 2021. In 2021, the CIA evacuated an intelligence officer serving in Serbia suspected of being a victim of the neurological attack. ==History of investigations==

2018 Developments In January 2018, the State Department convened an accountability review board, led by retired United States Ambassador to Libya Peter Bodde, to review the department's handling of AHIs. In March 2018, a team of computer scientists at the University of Michigan reported in a study that ultrasound—specifically, intermodulation distortion from multiple inaudible ultrasonic signals—from malfunctioning or improperly placed Cuban surveillance equipment could have been the origin of the reported sounds. FBI investigations In 2018, the FBI produced two reports on AHIs. The first, internally released in January, was a non-public report by the FBI's Operational Technology Division which found no evidence of a sonic attack or involvement of foreign adversaries. While some of those affected recovered swiftly, others had symptoms for months. The study concluded that "the diplomats appear to have sustained injury to widespread brain networks." A 2018 study by Beatrice Alexandra Golomb determined that the symptoms and circumstances of AHIs were consistent with pulsed RF/MW radiation. Criticism of University of Pennsylvania study The same issue of JAMA that contained the UPenn study also contained an editorial criticizing it. The editorial criticized the lack of a control group, lack of baseline evaluations, and lack of experimental blinding. The editorial expressed concern that many of the measurements were based on patient self-reports or involved subjective interpretations. The editorial said that the UPenn study's conclusion (that the subjects suffered brain injuries) was flawed, because there were other (non-injury) explanations that were consistent with the symptoms, such as functional disorders, persistent postural-perceptual dizziness, or psychogenic causes. The UPenn study was also criticized in late 2018 by the neuroscience journal Cortex. The journal's editorial board, led by Sergio Della Sala, published a letter stating that the study had "gross methodological flaws" and asking the authors of the study to clarify their methods or retract the study. In the board's view, "Allowing such confused and conflicting explanations of methodology and analysis to pass unchallenged is a slippery path for science, and dangerous for society at large". In late 2018, some scientists, including physicist Peter Zimmerman, bioengineers Kenneth R. Foster, and Andrei G. Pakhomov, and UCLA neurologist Robert Baloh, said that the microwave hypothesis was implausible; Baloh described the conclusions of the UPenn study as "science fiction". In 2024, scientists with the NIH published a study of 86 AHI patients in which they were unable to replicate the UPenn results. Parts of JASON's report were declassified in September 2021. The report concluded that the sounds in the audio recordings were "most likely" caused by insects and that it was "highly unlikely" that microwaves or ultrasound beams were involved, because "No plausible single source of energy (neither radio/microwaves nor sonic) can produce both the recorded audio/video signals and the reported medical effects." The conclusion was that the sounds were the calling song of the Indies short-tailed cricket (Anurogryllus celerinictus) rather than those of a technological device. Stubbs and Montealegre-Z matched the song's "pulse repetition rate, power spectrum, pulse rate stability, and oscillations per pulse" to the recording. Stubbs and Montealegre wrote, "the causes of the health problems reported by embassy personnel are beyond the scope of this paper" and called for "more rigorous research into the source of these ailments, including the potential psychogenic effects, as well as possible physiological explanations unrelated to sonic attacks." Psychogenic cause proposed In a 2019 paper, Robert Bartholomew and Robert Baloh proposed that the AHIs represent a mass psychogenic illness rather than a "novel clinical entity". In December 2020, BuzzFeed news noticed that the NASEM report mentioned the CDC report, and so they made a FOIA request, and obtained the CDC report. In January 2021, Buzzfeed published the CDC report. Buzzfeed quoted neurologist Robert Baloh as saying "Essentially the CDC is saying that they have no idea what happened in Cuba." The committee found that many of the AHI symptoms were consistent with exposure to directed RF energy. The committee outlined additional research that needs to be conducted before concrete conclusions can be reached. Media In October 2020, the New York Times reported that U.S. diplomats and intelligence officers, including senior leaders, had clashed with Trump administration appointees, including CIA director Gina Haspel and State Department leaders, over the nature and causes of the suspected attacks. A New York Times investigation found that the State Department had "produced inconsistent assessments of patients and events, ignored outside medical diagnoses and withheld basic information from Congress". and that that suspicion was shared by both Trump and Biden administration officials. In 2020 the New York Times reported that a 2014 NSA report stated that a hostile nation possessed a microwave weapon capable of being aimed at a person's living quarters, causing nervous system damage; and that Russia has an interest in disrupting cooperation among the U.S., China, and Cuba. 2021 U.S. State Department In February, the U.S. State Department said that its ongoing investigation was "a high priority" for the department. and retired Ambassador Margaret Uyehara. Cuban Academy of Sciences In September 2021, the Cuban Academy of Sciences released a report prepared by 21 scientists and academics. The report determined that prior analyses by United States scientists were biased and relied on evidence that was cherry-picked to support the narrative of attacks by a foreign adversary. The Cuban scientists stated that alternative explanations, including psychogenic causes, were suppressed in the US investigations. The Cuban report concluded that there is no weapon that can inflict the kinds of ailments reported, and that the most likely explanation of the syndrome was mass psychogenic illness, perhaps combined with prior existing medical conditions. Media In May 2021, The New Yorker reported that some unnamed officials in the government believe that GRU agents have been aiming microwave-radiation devices at U.S. officials, to obtain information from phones and computers, and that the radiation may be harmful. The article also quoted a government official who interviewed several overseas workers that reported episodes of pain or dizziness when near GRU locations. An article in The Guardian interviewed experts regarding the feasibility of AHIs being caused by microwave weapons, and some of the experts stated that it was plausible, but others stated it was not plausible. In September 2021, it was reported that within the U.S. government, analysts had debated whether the alleged attacks reflected a deliberate attempt to cause injury, or whether the reported symptoms were "a consequence of a high-tech attempt to steal classified information from phones and computers of U.S. officials". CIA Report In January 2022, the Central Intelligence Agency issued an interim report that summarized an ongoing study of roughly 1,000 reported cases of AHI. The study concluded that it was unlikely that a foreign power was responsible for the AHIs, and that the study had not yet found evidence of involvement by a state actor. The report said that most of the reviewed cases could be explained by natural causes such as environmental causes, undiagnosed medical conditions, or stress. The study identified about 24 cases for which foreign involvement could not be ruled out, and said that investigation is continuing. 2022 JASON Report On February 10, 2022, the State Department released unclassified portions of a report it had commissioned from the JASON Advisory Group. The study also examined whether or not electromagnetic radiation could be the cause of AHIs. The study concluded that several forms of radiation could be ruled out, including ionizing radiation, acoustic energy, and RF energy at frequencies less than 500 MHz or greater than 30 GHz. After considering factors such as ability to aim and to penetrate building walls, the remaining frequenciesbetween 500 MHz and 30 GHzwere determined to be a "highly unlikely" cause, although they could not be conclusively ruled out. Five of the seven agencies involved in generating the report concluded "the available intelligence consistently points against the involvement of US adversaries in causing the reported incidents" and that a foreign adversary's involvement was "very unlikely". One of the other agencies concluded that foreign involvement was "unlikely", and the seventh agency declined to make a finding. Of the report, CIA Director William J. Burns said, "The intelligence community assessment released today by ODNI reflects more than two years of rigorous, painstaking collection, investigative work, and analysis by IC agencies including CIA... We applied the agency's very best operational, analytic, and technical tradecraft to what is one of the largest and most intensive investigations in the agency's history." Politico summarized the results by saying, "The finding undercuts a years-long narrative, propped up by more than a thousand reports from government employees, that a foreign adversary used pulsed electromagnetic energy waves to sicken Americans." Reactions Following release of the March 2023 report, Trump's national security adviser John Bolton stated that when the Cuban attack reports began, he "pretty quickly" came to believe that attacks were not in Cuba's interest, and that he thought it was beyond Cuba's capabilities. He assumed Russia was involved, but said that he chose not to brief the president on that, as he did not think Trump would support that theory due to his association with Vladimir Putin. Upon release of the report, Cuba's Vice Foreign Minister Carlos Fernandez de Cossio told Reuters, "The unfortunate thing is the U.S. government leveraged [Havana syndrome] to derail bilateral relations... and discredit Cuba." Reuters also reported that "Cuba has for years labeled as 'science fiction' the idea that 'Havana Syndrome' resulted from an attack by a foreign agent, and its top scientists in 2021 found no evidence of such allegations." Despite the report's conclusion, U.S. Senator Marco Rubio, the vice chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, issued a statement on March 2 rejecting the finding, saying, "Something happened here, and just because you don't have all the answers doesn't mean that it didn't happen." Rubio said his panel would continue an independent review of the claims. International Journal of Social Psychiatry During 2023, the International Journal of Social Psychiatry published several articles and commentaries supporting the psychogenic hypothesis, criticizing the energy weapon hypothesis, and questioning whether some earlier Havana syndrome studies published in JAMA were inappropriately influenced by politics. 2024 NIH Clinical Center studies In April, scientists at the National Institutes of Health Clinical Center published the results of two studies conducted over five years on two groups of federal employees (81 and 86 people) who experienced anomalous health incidents (AHIs). The studies did not find any brain injuries or persistent physiologic changes, when comparing AHI patients to a control group. One of the researchers noted that many of the patients are experiencing high levels of stress and anxiety, which can negatively impact their recovery from original AHIs. The authors of the first NIH study concluded that "This ... study ... revealed no significant differences in imaging measures of brain structure or function between individuals reporting AHIs and matched control participants after adjustment for multiple comparisons." Differences between the AHI individuals and the control group were statistically insignificant, after compensating for errors related to multiple measurements. Media In March 2024, three news sources published the results of a joint investigation: The Insider, 60 Minutes, and Der Spiegel. The journalists interviewed people that stated that some AHIs were possibly caused by actions of Russian military intelligence, specifically that members of the GRU Unit 29155, known for undertaking foreign operations, received awards and promotions for work related to the development and deployment of "non-lethal acoustic weapons". The Kremlin Press Secretary dismissed the report as "nothing more than baseless, unfounded accusations by the media." US vice presidential candidate JD Vance ridiculed the report, saying that the journalists had "lost their minds". 2025 Update to the 2023 U.S. intelligence report In January 2025, the U.S. intelligence community published an update to their 2023 report. The update stated that five of the seven components of the community continue to assess it "very unlikely" that a foreign actor is responsible. All intelligence agencies "agree that most of the new intelligence [since March 2023] was consistent with the judgments reached in the [2023 report]." The update stated that two of the seven components shifted "their assessments about whether a foreign actor has a capability that could cause biological effects consistent with some of the symptoms reported as possible AHIs", leading those two components to "subtly change their overall judgment about whether a foreign actor might have played a role in a small number of events". One of those two components continues to assess it is "unlikely a foreign actor has deployed such a weapon in any events reported as possible AHIs." 2026 Reports of suspected device Anonymous sources claimed that Homeland Security Investigations purchased a device in an undercover operation for millions of dollars toward the end of the Biden administration. The backpack-sized device is said to emit pulsed radio frequencies. Testing is ongoing and some are skeptical that this device could be the cause of Havana syndrome. According to CBS, "[t]he device is portable, backpack-sized, and contains components of Russian origin". First to report symptoms dies On January 29, 2026, Michael Beck, the first to report any symptoms of Havana syndrome, died at the age of 65. He had been diagnosed with Parkinson's disease at 45. In 2014, he had filed a workers' compensation for hazardous conditions that was denied. Norwegian test In February 2026, The Washington Post reported that a test was conducted by a Norwegian government scientist in 2024. The scientist reportedly constructed a device that emits pulses of microwave energy and tested it on himself to determine whether it would produce neurological effects. According to the anonymous sources, he suffered symptoms that were not exactly identical to those of AHI, but the test strengthened the evidence that microwave may affect human biology. Laser hypothesis In January 2026, Alexander Kostinsky, a research fellow at the Nuclear Physics Institute of the Czech Academy of Sciences, proposed that symptoms akin to Havana syndrome could be induced via the optoacoustic effect from a pulsed infrared laser, which he argued could be made portable and covert, in contrast to high-power microwave systems. In a March 2026 article by T-invariant discussing Kostinsky's hypothesis, interviews with scientists previously involved in Havana syndrome research did not identify specific technical objections to the proposed mechanism, although concerns about potential retinal damage were noted. ==Other responses==

Cuban government After the initial AHIs were made public in 2017, the Cuban foreign minister accused the U.S. of lying about the incident and denied Cuban involvement in or knowledge of the cause of the health problems the diplomats experienced. The Cuban government offered to cooperate with the U.S. in an investigation of the incidents. It employed about 2,000 scientists and law enforcement officers who interviewed 300 neighbors of diplomats, examined two hotels, and medically examined non-diplomats who could have been exposed. NBC reported that Cuban officials stated that they analyzed air and soil samples and considered a range of toxic chemicals. They also examined the possibility that electromagnetic waves were to blame, and even looked into whether insects could be the culprit, but found nothing they could link to the claimed medical symptoms. The FBI and Cuban authorities met to discuss the situation; the Cubans stated that the U.S. neither agreed to share the diplomats' medical records with Cuban authorities nor allowed Cuban investigators access to U.S. diplomats' homes to conduct tests. In 2021, a panel of scientists affiliated with the Cuban Academy of Sciences and convened by the Cuban government reported that "the narrative of the 'mysterious syndrome' is not scientifically acceptable in any of its components." The panel addressed the microwave hypothesis directly, writing, "No known form of energy can selectively cause brain damage (with laser-like spatial accuracy) under the conditions described for the alleged incidents in Havana." Six months later, Spratlen left her position as coordinator of the task force because she "reached the threshold of hours of labor" that she could perform as a retiree. Her resignation had been demanded by people angered by her handling of a conference call with affected employees. During the call with employees (in which Secretary of State Antony Blinken also took part), Spratlen did not take a position on whether the AHIs were psychogenic, a response that affected diplomats called "invalidating". In late 2022 the US Defense Health Agency issued Form 244, Anomalous Health Incident (AHI) Acute Assessment, described as "a multi-domain assessment that should be used to evaluate patients for potential AHI". Medical care The DoD is responsible for providing medical care to patients reporting AHI symptoms. In July 2024, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) issued a report that surveyed the DoD's actions in providing medical care to AHI patients. The GAO interviewed 65 of the 334 people that qualified for health care provided by the DoD. Based on the interviews, the GAO found that the AHI patients were often confused by the process to obtain care. The GAO made several recommendations to the DoD, with the goal of streamlining the process and improving communications. The DoD said it is working on implementing the recommendations, but does not yet have concrete dates when they will be implemented. In May 2024, a former CIA employee, who reported AHI symptoms and is now an advocate for other AHI patients, claimed that the CIA required him to participate in the NIH study as a prerequisite to obtaining medical care for his AHI symptoms. The CIA denied the allegation. The NIH investigated the claim, and discovered no coercion on the part of NIH personnel. Since the participant perceived he was coerced by the CIA, the NIH terminated the AHI studies in September 2024, to avoid the appearance of possible violation of medical ethics guidelines. U.S. Congress In early 2021, Defense Department investigators briefed members of Congress about the November 2020 incident at The Ellipse near the White House. The DoD discussed the matter, even though it occurred within the U.S.; this was because the DoD investigation was more advanced than the FBI or the intelligence community investigations. The National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2022, passed by Congress in December 2021, included a section directing the president to designate a senior official as "anomalous health incidents interagency coordinator" to oversee efforts across the federal government and to coordinate with the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, required relevant federal agencies to designate a specific high-level "anomalous health incident agency coordination lead" and directed agencies to develop guidance to employees considered to be at risk of exposure. A Republican-led subcommittee of the House of Representatives, responsible for overseeing the CIA, issued an interim report in December 2024 criticizing the Biden administration and CIA leadership. The subcommittee, led by a Republican representative, said the 2023 report published by the ODNI intelligence agencies lacked analytic integrity, and that it contained conflicting assessments. The subcommittee wrote ".... the Biden Administration’s failure to adequately prioritize collection on this threat has likely resulted in lost opportunities...The Biden Administration and IC [Intelligence Community] leadership has sought to hinder the Subcommittee’s investigation." The subcommittee report was criticized by a Democratic member of the House. Financial compensation In response to Havana syndrome, United States senator Susan Collins introduced a bill (S. 1828), cosponsored by a bipartisan group of nine other senators, that would close a loophole in the Federal Employees' Compensation Act that would normally not cover damage to organs such as the brain and heart. In 2021, Congress passed the Helping American Victims Afflicted by Neurological Attacks (HAVANA) Act, which authorized the CIA director and the secretary of state to provide financial support for personnel with brain injuries. The bill passed the House and Senate unanimously and was signed into law by president Joe Biden on October 8, 2021, becoming Public Law No. 117-46. The law gives an untaxed lump-sum payment of up to one year's full salary ($187,300 for higher-ranking employees) to government employees that provide evidence of neurological injury. The payment is in addition to workers' compensation or disability payments. Politico also reported that the U.S. Department of Defense had recently tested RF waves on primates. Lawsuits and advocacy In October 2022, CNN reported that about three dozen CIA officers had accused the agency of dragging its feet in the investigation, including some who had filed formal whistleblower complaints. In 2021, a State Department employee, who reported AHIs in Cuba in 2017, filed a lawsuit against the government, claiming they unfairly denied him disability payments. A State Department employee, who reported AHI symptoms while working in China in 2017, filed a whistleblower complaint against the State Department in 2020, alleging that the State Department retaliated against him for publicly complaining about the government's handling of AHIs; the State Department later settled the complaint, without admitting liability. In February 2019, several Canadian diplomats sued the Canadian government, arguing that it failed to protect them or promptly address serious health concerns. The government has sought to dismiss the suit, arguing in November 2019 that it was not negligent and did not breach its duties to its employees. In court filings, the government acknowledged that several of the 14 plaintiffs in the suit had concussion-like symptoms but said that no definitive cause or medical diagnosis had been ascertained. In a November 2019 statement, Global Affairs Canada said, "We continue to investigate the potential causes of the unusual health symptoms." == See also ==