I applaud Sen. Collins for championing an act that extends long-overdue support to those afflicted by Havana Syndrome; they need all the care we can provide. But to write that it is “likely caused by a directed energy attack” foments a poorly supported science fiction that is as unhelpful to our diplomacy as it is unhealthy for our diplomats, who could benefit from a “whole-of-government approach” focused on more likely and readily actionable causes.

The JASON scientific panel and other experts have found no conclusive evidence favoring microwave or ultrasound technologies that could explain this syndrome or trace its nefarious implications. There is no medical data yet presented providing a consistently shared, specific mechanism of injury among all Havana Syndrome patients.

Crickets and shell shock are as likely a cause, if not more so. When public officials countenance Go-Go Gadget explanations instead of engaging and acknowledging other causes, we might delay or deny our diplomats the care and safeguards they need as we continue promulgating fantastic hypotheses as infective as they are invective.

An attack implies an attacker, and fear is as virulent a contagion as any. Fear’s the “heartless adversary,” and overreaction in fear’s name.

Margaret Chase Smith was powerful medicine against the delusions of McCarthyism. I hope Sen. Collins can follow Chase’s example. We need a strong tonic against a paranoia whose morbidity to the body politic may prove as similar a fallout as the emptyhanded search for the Iraq War’s weapons of mass destruction.

Michael Stanley
Springvale

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