An internal review board at the National Institutes of Health has decided to shut down a long-term study of Havana Syndrome patients that found no signs of brain injuries, after several participants complained of mishandled medical data, bias and pressures to join the research.
A spokeswoman for NIH said the internal review found that “informed consent” policies to join the study “were not met due to coercion, although not on the part of NIH researchers.”
“Given the role of voluntary consent as a fundamental pillar of the ethical conduct of research, NIH has stopped the study out of an abundance of caution,” said Jennifer George. She did not say who coerced the patients.
Despite that assessment, at least 334 former and active government employees, military officers and relatives, including 15 children, have qualified to get treatment for Havana Syndrome in specialized military health facilities, according to a report by the U.S. Government Accountability Office. To be eligible for treatment in the military health system, a doctor must certify a brain injury or other significant symptoms that a known cause or a pre-existing condition cannot explain.
The NIH research examined MRIs and blood markers of people exposed to the incidents and found no evidence of mild traumatic brain injuries, contradicting earlier studies. It published its first results in March in two papers in the Journal of the American Medical Association.
The CIA gave a statement to CNN. https://edition.cnn.com/2024/08/30/health/nih-havana-syndrome-study/
A CIA official said the agency takes “any claim of coercion, or perceived coercion, extremely seriously and fully cooperated with NIH’s review of this matter, and have offered access to any information requested.”
The official told CNN the CIA Inspector General is aware of the NIH’s findings and the prior related allegations.
“We greatly value the efforts of the scientific community to better understand these reported health incidents. CIA remains committed to ensuring continued access to care for affected officers and to fully investigating any reports of health incidents,” the official said in a statement.
What’s it called? When the lack of evidence is the evidence for conspiracy theorists? They’ll probably go with something along the lines of “Cuban spies within the deepstate sabotaged the research program.”