A long-term study of patients with Havana syndrome was halted after an internal investigative committee at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) found improper handling of medical data and subjects who complained they had been coerced into participating in the study. The study has so far found no evidence linking the subjects to the same symptoms or brain damage. The internal investigation that halted the study was triggered by complaints from subjects about unethical practices.
This comes after the U.S. intelligence community released an interim report last year concluding that it was “highly unlikely” that a hostile foreign force was behind symptoms experienced by hundreds of U.S. intelligence officers who are eligible for U.S. government funding to treat brain injuries.
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“The NIH investigation found that the requirements of regulations and NIH policy regarding informed consent were not met through coercion, though not on the part of NIH researchers,” an NIH spokesperson said in a statement to Fox News.
The former CIA officer, who gave his name as Adam to protect his identity, wasn't shocked that the research had been stopped.
On March 9, 2001, a seal reading “United States Public Health Service” is displayed on a building on the campus of the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland. (Photo: Mark Wilson/Newsmakers)
“The way this study was conducted is dishonest at best and criminal at worst,” Adam said.
Adam is patient zero for Havana Syndrome, as he is the first to experience the severe sensory phenomena experienced by hundreds of U.S. government personnel stationed overseas in Havana, Moscow, and even China. He described dizziness, tinnitus, and a feeling of pressure on the brain that led to cognitive impairment.
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Active-duty military personnel, spies, FBI agents, diplomats, and even children and pets have all experienced this debilitating sensation that sufferers believe is caused by pulsed-energy weapons. According to a study released by the Government Accountability Office earlier this year, 334 Americans have qualified to be treated for Havana syndrome at specialized military medical facilities.
Reportedly, 334 Americans are now eligible to receive treatment for Havana syndrome. (iStock)
The first time he was attacked, in December 2016, in his bedroom in Havana, Adam described hearing a loud bang that echoed through the room. “It felt like someone was taking a pencil and flicking it against my eardrums. Then I started to lose consciousness,” he said.
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Patients like Adam who participated in the NIH study expressed concern that the CIA was diluting the data NIH researchers were analyzing by including patients who did not actually qualify as having Havana syndrome, while also pressuring patients who needed treatment at Walter Reed to participate in the NIH study in order to receive treatment there.
Staff members of the U.S. Embassy in Havana leave the building after the State Department announced it was withdrawing all non-essential diplomats from the embassy on September 29, 2017. (Emily Michaud/Miami Herald/Tribune News Service via Getty Images)
“It quickly became clear that something was wrong, how it was being handled and how patients were being screened. The CIA was dictating who was going to participate. Behind the scenes, the NIH would often complain that the CIA wasn't providing an adequate control group, and then they would muddy the waters by flooding in a bunch of people who probably had no connection to the CIA or had other medical problems,” Adam said, accusing the NIH of collaborating with the CIA.
The CIA is cooperating.
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“We cannot comment on whether CIA personnel participated in this study, but we take any allegations of coercion, or the appearance of coercion, extremely seriously and are fully cooperating with the NIH in their investigation of this matter and providing access to any information requested,” a CIA official said in a statement to Fox News, noting that “the CIA Inspector General is aware of the results of the NIH investigation and previous related allegations.”
Havana syndrome victims are now trying to pressure the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) to retract two papers published last spring that used early data from the NIH study to conclude that the group of Havana syndrome victims had no significant evidence of MRI-detectable brain damage compared with the control group.
