A long-awaited weekend study concluded that the microwave oven attack was the “most reasonable explanation” for a mysterious injury outbreak reported by dozens of US diplomats in Cuba three years ago.

But when National Academy of Sciences reportResearch commissioned by the US State Department shows that the discovery of possible microwave attacks is far from conclusive. At the same time, external experts on microwaves and the mysterious “Havana Syndrome” think this is impractical. A scientist called it “science fiction.”

David Relman, chairman of the Stanford University Infectious Diseases Panel, said: “In many ways, what we are talking about is that the US government must achieve this goal in a more prudent and comprehensive way.” “The government needs to go all out, not only to study what happened, but also to predict future development.”

The State Department appreciated the release and stated in a statement to BuzzFeed News that the report “can be added to data and analysis, which may help us reach a final conclusion on what happened.”

The statement added: “In many conclusions, the report pointed out that the “signs and symptoms constellation” is consistent with the impact of pulsed radio frequency energy. We will note that “consistent with” is a term in the field of medicine and science. It allows authenticity but cannot determine the cause.”

Approximately 35 diplomats reported that this mysterious injury began at the end of 2016, damaging U.S. diplomatic relations with Cuba in most of the work of the Trump administration.

In 2017, the State Department first publicized its concerns about the staff of the U.S. Embassy in Havana. They reported hearing loud noises followed by symptoms such as earaches, headaches and head pressure. Early news reports claimed that sonic weapons were the cause, which could cause deafness, inner ear damage, and concussion-like brain damage syndromes, but the new NAS report dismissed them. At the time, Rex Tillerson, head of the U.S. State Department, called it “Health attackDiplomats and their families.

Other circulated theories suggest that mysterious diseases are caused by sound Trigger hysteria or Russian spies sabotage diplomats in some way. In 2019, the State Council required the NAS to conduct a disease review on the limited information available, focusing on recommendations on how to collect medical information for any future cases. Last year, the team held three meetings and listened to the opinions of the medical teams who treated or checked some sick patients; it also reviewed the reports of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the National Institutes of Health, and listened to eight in closed meetings. Testimony of two patients.

However, the report stated that due to security and medical privacy laws, the team was blocked due to a lack of information about the personnel. The medical test data provided is not thorough enough because the data collected is only used to help treat patients, not to investigate outbreaks of injuries.

Jeffrey Staab, a professor of psychiatry at the Mayo Clinic, said: “We have no information about individuals, including those who were first affected, who were later affected, and their relationships. “With these limitations in mind, the team focused on the acute, immediate symptoms reported by the Havana diplomat-loud voice, stress, vibration, earache and headache-which are the most characteristic and beneficial of possible explanations. information. The panel also ruled out recent reports that Canadian tourists and US diplomats in China have suffered similar injuries.

Staab said: “There are indeed loopholes in the information.” “Even if we have all the security check permissions, we can see everything about everyone, but there are still loopholes in the information.”

Panelists told BuzzFeed News that these same restrictions limit the reasonable explanations scientists can make about the injury. One theory is that the mysterious disease is caused by infectious diseases such as Zika virus and is considered “extremely unlikely”, while the most recent explanation is that this outbreak was caused by pesticide poisoning and was determined to be “unlikely.” “Although scientists have pointed out that patients without blood samples can be completely ruled out.

Scientists also considered the third theory, that the mass mental illness is the cause. In this case, a series of acute symptoms appear, followed by more chronic diseases, especially persistent dizziness, difficulty thinking, insomnia and headaches, which reflect the outbreak of injuries spread by social infectious diseases in the past. However, due to the lack of data about individuals and their contacts to map social networks, Staab said the panel of experts was unable to draw clear conclusions. Relman said: “The most difficult thing to put aside is the psychological, social explanation.”

This leaves the final theory that the disease is caused by a “directed radio frequency energy attack.” Based on a real phenomenon called the “Frey effect”, under this phenomenon, a pulsed microwave beam directed at a person’s ear will produce a clicking sound that only the target person can hear. Reasonable” considered interpretation.

“It’s a bit dramatic. But first, important and real things happened to these people,” Lehrman said. “We have studied possible mechanisms and found that one mechanism is more reasonable than others and is fully consistent with some of the most unique clinical findings.”

The report concluded that the microwave attack may cause compensatory balance and dizziness syndrome, accompanied by depression caused by injury. Staab said that chronic injuries usually have psychological factors and should not be considered as real symptoms.

The most important finding of the report is its recommendations to the State Council on how to thoroughly investigate future clusters, which include experts from multiple disciplines, not just doctors familiar with brain injuries. Staab said: “No matter what happens, we can’t happen again.”

However, experts in microwave and group psychology are highly critical of the report’s conclusions.

Kenneth Foster, a bioengineer at the University of Pennsylvania, said: “The report does not have a unified argument on why microwaves should be used.” He first described the mechanism behind the Frey effect. 1974. He said that this effect requires a high power level to produce almost inaudible sound, and it is not known to cause harm. He said: “Maybe someone used a large microwave transmitter to load a truck in trouble, causing employees to hear a’click’, but there are simpler ways to harass people than this,” he said.

Robert Baloh, a neurologist at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), said: “This is not science, but science fiction.” Havana Syndrome: the true story behind a large number of mental illnesses and the mystery and hysteria of the embassy. Baloh said that only news reports, without consideration of group discussions, portrayed the way a disease spreads, which looks a lot like the collective psychological outbreaks of the past. He added: “There are many misunderstandings, these symptoms are real, even among doctors, people are indeed injured.”

Mitchell Joseph Valdés Sosa, a neuroscientist at the Cuban Neuroscience Center, said the report is a step in the right direction because it makes sonic weapons and brain injuries more common The theory is invalid.The survey results are similar to Cuban Academy of Sciences 2018 reportCo-authored by Sosa, the study shows that early injuries in a small group of people are likely to spread to more people in the entire diplomatic field through public psychology. Souza said: “Of course, we do not agree with the discovery of radio frequency pulses, but this is the first time we have made American experts realize that psychological effects may be important.”

He pointed out that the Cuban hotels and neighborhoods where the microwave attacks occurred were in crowded open spaces so that a small group of people would not be affected, or the attacks might not attract people’s attention.

Sosa added that the Cuban Academy of Sciences did contact the team of experts to present its investigations into the communities near the reported injuries. However, it was informed that the team’s contract did not allow negotiations with Cubans.

Andrei Pakhomov, a bioengineer at Dominion University, said that none of the team members seem to have extensive experience in the biological effects of microwaves. This may explain their willingness to consider similar Frey effects. He said that he has studied himself for 40 years. Skeptical. In that area. “There are many reports on the biological effects of radio frequency fields, but there are no reliable reports.”

in spite of Suspect report Russian spy Pakhomov stated that it was based on Soviet-era research and in some way built on Russian spies in the Soviet era. Russia no longer exists in this field.

He said: “I know all the people out there who can make a difference in this field.” “They are all retired, or for scientific purposes.”