WASHINGTON _ Cuban scientific investigators visiting Washington to meet with State Department officials, scientists and members of Congress have challenged whether 26 diplomats at the U.S. Embassy in Havana suffered brain injury and were deliberately attacked.
"We don't doubt that the diplomats were sick. As a doctor I would never deny that these people were feeling ill," said Dr. Mitchell Joseph Valdes Sosa, head of the Neuroscience Center of Cuba.
But he said there could be many reasons for their symptoms, including pre-existing conditions, psychological factors and other underlying causes that need more study before they can be eliminated. Cuban scientists, he said, have seen no credible evidence from the scarce information shared with them that some mysterious weapon was used against the diplomats.
"The idea that a whole collection of symptoms was caused by a weapon, we find difficult to believe," Valdes Sosa said.
In late November 2016, some diplomats assigned to the embassy began to complain of dizziness, headaches, ringing in the ears, loss of balance, fatigue, cognitive problems and, in the most acute cases, hearing loss. The symptoms were often associated with a shrill sound that seemed to be directional.
University of Pennsylvania doctors and scientists who saw the diplomats and affected family members reached a preliminary conclusion that the diplomatic personnel suffered a new neurological syndrome that could cause brain damage without a blow to the head.
But the Cuban scientists said many of the diplomats' symptoms could also be caused by functional disorders such as hypertension and stress.
"The neuropsychological tests, considered to be more objective, were assessed with unusual criteria, which applied to a group of healthy individuals, would qualify all of them as ill," the delegation said in a statement. If internationally established criteria were applied, the statement said, "Only two subjects could be considered afflicted."
Three diplomats seen by the University of Pennsylvania researchers showed hearing loss, but they could have had pre-existing conditions, the Cuban doctors said. There were no baseline studies of the patients to make comparisons.
A State Department spokesperson defended the U.S. studies Thursday: "These patients have undergone months of highly specialized medical testing. World-class brain injury specialists and other scientists at the University of Pennsylvania, the National Institutes of Health, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention continue to examine the medical data to gain a better understanding of these patients' symptoms."
The meetings came at a time when some in the U.S. government believe that Cuba is not sharing all it knows about what the State Department has deemed deliberate health attacks on its diplomatic personnel at their homes and at two Havana hotels where they were staying.
Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., has insisted that in a tightly controlled country like Cuba, not only must the Cuban government know what caused the mysterious incidents, but also who is responsible. Officially, the State Department says it is still investigating and hasn't assigned blame, but it does hold Cuba responsible for not protecting the diplomats while they were on the island.
Cuba has vigorously denied it has had any role in harming the diplomats.
Johana Tablada, deputy director of the U.S. Department at the Cuban Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said the Cuban delegation will ask the State Department "to stop using the word attack." She said she hopes that U.S. and Cuban doctors will be able to work doctor-to-doctor, without political influence, to try to come up with a better understanding of what happened to the U.S. diplomats.
The nine-member Cuban scientific delegation also met with members of Congress and the National Academy of Sciences to press their point that there needs to be more scientific cooperation to unravel the mystery. Cuban investigators have complained that the United States is not sharing enough medical information on the victims to carry out an adequate investigation.
After the meeting at the National Academy of Sciences, Jose Ramon Cabanas, the Cuban ambassador to the United States, said on Twitter that "when Cuba and U.S. scientists meet there is only one language: Science."
Tablada said the meeting came at the invitation of the State Department after Cuba had asked for the exchange for more than a year.
The Cuban delegation, she said, was gratified to be able to talk with their U.S. counterparts but disappointed that more medical and clinical data wasn't shared with them. The U.S. delegation, which was headed by Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Kenneth Merten, also included State Department medical personnel.
University of Pennsylvania doctors and scientists who saw 21 of the confirmed cases, on an average of 203 days after the alleged attacks occurred, said some suffered from concussion-like symptoms, but without experiencing any blow to their heads.
The Cuban delegation said they had hoped that the Penn scientists would be present at the State Department meeting so they could have had an exchange about their findings.
Researchers and doctors at the University of Miami and University of Pittsburgh also disputed whether the diplomats had mild traumatic brain injuries. The 25 patients who were seen in Miami had a low incidence of headaches. A high incidence of headaches usually accompanies a concussion, they said.
They theorized that some type of directed energy weapon could have caused the symptoms they were seeing.
"Before we start looking for a James Bond-type weapon," it's necessary to prove there was actually brain damage, Valdes Sosa said.
Friction over the health incidents has hurt relations between the United States and Cuba. The United States has withdrawn two-thirds of its diplomats from Havana, leaving only essential personnel, has limited tours of duty in Havana to one year, and has made Havana a post where family members can't join diplomats.
The United States also expelled 17 Cuban diplomats from the embassy in Washington.
