Item — HN Reader

tl; dr:

- Neurological studies show actual damage to the same region of the brain for these diplomats

- Pesticides (organophosphates) are put out as a candidate theory.

- Research shows people whose residences were sprayed MORE with pesticide had greater symptoms, adding strong evidence

- Mass Hysteria is dismissed as a theory, as the group of people experiencing it is highly vetted and because the diagnosis is only applicable when no underlying cause is present. In this case, the actual measurement of the brain show there is damage, ruling out the theory.

3 comments

> The embassies actively sprayed in offices, as well as inside and outside diplomatic residences — sometimes five times more frequently than usual. Many times, spraying operations were carried out every two weeks, according to embassy records.

This suggests that in fact it was the US government (following the host government's lead) that introduced the toxin into their environment. If so, it seems like the Cubans may be owed an apology.

But did the embassy use stronger concentration than Cuba? Or a different agent? Are any local Havanans experiencing these symptoms?

The article answers this

Specifically this section I suppose:

> The symptoms experienced by the victims — headaches, hearing loss, cognitive problems, loss of balance, etc. — are frequently found in the general population, these scientists argued, and can be attributed to many causes.

also page 35 mentions that there's genetic factors (PON1 gene) that affect organophosphate susceptibilities

Possibly CYP2D6 polymorphism has a role too https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26723569

It is very hard to diagnose light brain injuries. The problem is that no one knows what a healthy brain should look like because we are all different so (unless you have before and after images) you can't say if a brain is injured. Another problem is that the neurologists making their judgement likely were primed - they know that something was wrong with the brains in the images so they looked for exactly that.

This blog post explains these issues in more detail: http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/neuroskeptic/2018/04/07/ba...

That said, it would be very interesting if they can show brain injuries from exposure to common pesticides. I wonder what impact such result would have on millions of farm workers or even on people living close to highways.

That... seems rather convincing? A rather impressive House, MD cosplay, certainly.

I distinctly remember the internet telling me thousand-fold of their absolute confidence that this was mass hysteria, usually with the pose of a really exciting contrarian theory and some blanket dismissal of "so-called experts" and the "mainstream media's" unwillingness to present that idea with similar conviction.

The second-ranking theory was, IIRC, a conspiracy by the US to create the pretext to invade Cuba. I guess the plans changed.