The coordinator of the team of experts that analyzed the alleged sonic attacks against US diplomatic personnel in Havana, Dr. Jorge Villar Kuscevic called on the international scientific community to express their opinions on the issue during the online Debate Forum underway in the Cuban Science Network website.

Villar Kuscevic affirmed that US authorities leaked a sound recording to the press that allegedly affected its diplomatic personnel but the sample only contains environmental noises including the sound of a known Cuban cricket and its intensity (74.6 decibels) does not damage the health of a human.

He added that sonic weapons exists and the US and Israeli governments have used them to break up demonstrations in their countries and its even sold on Internet, however, that does not exist in Cuba, or are imported or produced in the country.

This situation takes us back to the Cold War in the 1960’s and that is why we reiterate for all scientists in the world to give their opinion on the issue and invite all that are interested from a scientific point of view and do more research, he concluded.

Dr. Nelson Gomez Viera, head of the Neurology Service of the Hermanos Ameijeiras Hospital highlighted that the Cuban specialists have called on the international scientific community to give their ideas, opinions and suggestions regarding the alleged sonic attacks and its possible causes described in the US State Department medical report, document that has been limited and insufficient, he stressed.

Dr. Freddy Matos from Ecuador believes that sonic agents cannot cause the symptoms described by the US personnel, there is no logical or scientific basis that can justify the signs. The alleged attacks said the Ecuadorean specialist is a lie of the US government to damage relations between the two countries.

Matos added that there are other illnesses that could have provoked such symptoms, chronic affections of the middle ear, meningitis, drugs, exposed to noise and even hysteria and added that the possibility that the symptoms were caused by psychosocial factors is feasible.

Regarding the criteria of Neurologist Mark Hallett, head of the Human Motor Control Section of the US National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Cerebral Hemorrhage, from an objective point of view the situation is more like a group hysteria rather than anything else and psychosomatic ailments are like any other disease, it should not be stigmatized. He said that it can be present in a family group and it is feasible in a larger group of individuals, especially when they work together in a tense and hostile environment.

According to Hallet, nothing has been found for the moment and the notion that its some sonic beam is absurd. We are dealing with group hysteria.