Is it technically difficult to detect abnormal microwave energy in this kind of situation? I know you can get a microwave oven leak detector for about thirty dollars.
'Havana syndrome'-like mystery illness affects Vienna US diplomats
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Re: 'Havana syndrome'-like mystery illness affects Vienna US diplomats
#22Why the hell aren't they just shielding the embassies against microwave radiation already? If I was a diplomat I would be walking around with a tinfoil hat and underwear, and I'd be quite furious about the lack of defense.
Re: 'Havana syndrome'-like mystery illness affects Vienna US diplomats
#23So it is happening to US diplomats on two unrelated locations, which indicates that the common element is the US. What if it's as a result of a US spy-craft instrument/substance side effect that potentially was not disclosed to the diplomats who suffer?
What if they're jusg English speakers who saw the news and got food poisning (or who knows what)... Why is this such fertile ground for conspiracy theories? Is there some kind of assumption diplomats and spies never get sick with unidentied diseases like the rest of us?
Conspiracy theories are a lot fun when not affecting public behaviour badly(That's why we have huge number of literature and films around conspiracies). Therefore it's intriguing to speculate on a mystery.
Oh and these days everyone is an English speaker, at least most diplomats are. Whatever the US ones read, the Spanish, the French, the Italians, the Bulgarians, the Russians, the Brazilians read it too.
Re: 'Havana syndrome'-like mystery illness affects Vienna US diplomats
#24Every time I see the NAS study mentioned I feel compelled to mention it said that while a psychogenic cause was entirely possible, as they never performed psychiatric evaluations they could not conclude that was the cause.
How they then conclude that a microwave attack is the most plausible is beyond me.
Re: 'Havana syndrome'-like mystery illness affects Vienna US diplomats
#25The only logical conclusion is that it is related to some secret anti spy device installed at US embassies around the world and not some outside disturbance covering Vienne to Havana?
Re: 'Havana syndrome'-like mystery illness affects Vienna US diplomats
#26So it is happening to US diplomats on two unrelated locations, which indicates that the common element is the US. What if it's as a result of a US spy-craft instrument/substance side effect that potentially was not disclosed to the diplomats who suffer?
Exactly. My take is that these reports are of work-place injuries. Something that the Government employees are doing, or have had done to them, is causing the problems.
Examples from the past: Gulf Syndrome in the 1990s caused by anti-gas warfare antidotes, and the Agent Orange cancers and other birth-deformities inflicted on VietNam vets.
Re: 'Havana syndrome'-like mystery illness affects Vienna US diplomats
#27If this is an attack what’s the point of it. It’s not like it has any useful effects on anything either politically or militarily.
> It’s not like it has any useful effects on anything either politically or militarily.
You genuinely don't think creating paranoia for and generally antagonizing US diplomats is of any potential political or military value? If anything this creates additional stress, and demonstrates the US's total inability to defend itself from such things making it appear weak/incompetent/vulnerable to the entire world, to say the least.
Surely you're joking or feigning ignorance here, right?
Re: 'Havana syndrome'-like mystery illness affects Vienna US diplomats
#28Is it technically difficult to detect abnormal microwave energy in this kind of situation? I know you can get a microwave oven leak detector for about thirty dollars.
These detectors might very well be a scam targeted at people who believe any kind of radiation is bad for them.
Re: 'Havana syndrome'-like mystery illness affects Vienna US diplomats
#29Every time I see the NAS study mentioned I feel compelled to mention it said that while a psychogenic cause was entirely possible, as they never performed psychiatric evaluations they could not conclude that was the cause. How they then conclude that a microwave attack is the most plausible is beyond me.
How could psychiatric evaluations conclude that anyway? There is no test for somatic symptom disorder, the diagnostic criteria are just that the symptoms are not adequately explained by physical causes. It often happens in people who are completely healthy mentally.
Re: 'Havana syndrome'-like mystery illness affects Vienna US diplomats
#30When you have syndromes with a huge number of symptoms, including extremely common conditions, and the symptoms are largely untestable, relying on patient self-reporting, then you're going to catch a lot of people with these symptoms. This is the exact same thing with Long Covid, or Gulf War Syndrome. The most interesting thing about Havana Syndrome is that it apparently only affects English-speaking diplomats in Ame…
Long Covid is demonstrably provable with scans, O2-saturation, blood pressure and other diagnostic checks. https://www.bmj.com/content/373/bmj.n853/rr-2
From your BMJ reference:
The term long covid embraces a wide spectrum of organ involvement, with no clear evidence yet to help inform efficient diagnostic pathways or specific treatments or to indicate probable prognosis.