'Havana Syndrome' Is Either Not Real Or Russian Psychological Warfare, According To Recent Conflicting Reports

For nearly a decade, the United States has been looking into Havana Syndrome, a mysterious illness that has supposedly affected members of the U.S. and Canadian embassies in Havana, Cuba. The symptoms include temporary hearing loss, hearing unexplained sounds and feeling unexplained vibrations.

In 2021, the illness became a prominent topic of debate (and conspiracy theories) online, as some in the government believed the symptoms could have been the result of psychological warfare deployed by Russia, while others believed it was psychosomatic nonsense.

Now, in 2024, we have definitive proof that Havana Syndrome is either a Russian tactic of psychological warfare or psychosomatic nonsense.

Here's what's going on: Two weeks ago, the National Institute of Health released a study on Havana Syndrome wherein it discovered that none of the patients suffering from the illness had signs of brain damage or any other identifiable causes for their symptoms.

Therefore, they concluded Havana Syndrome was likely a sort of mass psychosis, "tied to previous injuries, stress, environmental concerns and 'social factors' such as group psychology, in which illness symptoms reported by one individual in a community can spread serially among its members," as paraphrased by the Scientific American publication.

Thus, it seemed that finally the debate on Havana Syndrome was settled — it was a group psychosis event all along.

Then yesterday, 60 Minutes, Der Spiegel and The Insider released a report saying Havana Syndrome may have been caused by Russian sonic warfare technology, so we're back to square one.

Granted, the report only raises the possibility of Russian interference and does not outright assert that Russia is responsible for the Havana Syndrome. Instead, it points to the evidence that links the Havana Syndrome to Russia. It alleges that a Russian military intelligence unit known as 29155 could have been behind an "attack," noting that an officer in the unit had been rewarded for their work related to the development of "non-lethal acoustic weapons."

Furthermore, those who came down with symptoms were in some way related to Russia, which the report calls a "Russia nexus." Greg Edgreen, the former DIA investigator of Havana Syndrome, told 60 Minutes, "Consistently there was a Russia nexus. There was some angle where they had worked against Russia, focused on Russia, and done extremely well.”

Still, U.S. officials stated it was "very unlikely a foreign adversary is responsible" for the Havana Syndrome symptoms. Nevertheless, the televised episode of 60 Minutes and the report itself led to newfound handwringing and eye-rolling about Havana Syndrome, which several have noted has been the exact tenor around Havana Syndrome discourse for years.