Wrong Conclusions from Incomplete Science: Dr. Mitchell Valdés-Sosa Discusses the NASEM Report on the “Havana Syndrome”

Part VIII is a collection of interviews with leaders from Cuba’s priority sectors: health, medical tourism, and biopharmaceuticals. This chapter is an interview with Dr. Mitchell Valdés-Sosa, an internationally respected neurologist, and the Director of the Center for Neuroscience (CNEURO) in Havana. The interview occurred immediately following the report by the U.S. National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM). It concluded that radio frequency wave exposure (microwaves) was the most plausible explanation for symptoms experienced by American and Canadian embassy staff in Havana. Cuba’s scientists called the conclusion “a very unlikely hypothesis” and “speculation not established science.” Unbeknownst to the scientists of the National Academy at the time was a secret report by the JASON group in 2018. The declassified report was obtained in September 2021 by BuzzFeed News reporter Dan Vergano through a Freedom of Information Act request. It concluded the cause of injuries was “highly unlikely” to have been microwave weapons or ultrasound beams but the mating calls of crickets and mass psychogenic effects. The Havana Syndrome story dominated the news and was the catalyst shaping the Trump campaign against Cuba, Florida politics, and attempts to crush the economy and foreign investment in Cuba.