Havana Syndrome mystery continues as a lead military investigator says bar for proof was set impossibly high

Olivia Troye: It was like this piercing feeling on the side of my head.

It was like, I remember it was on the right side of my head and I, I got like vertigo.

Olivia Troye was Homeland Security adviser to Vice President Mike Pence. In our 2022 report, she told us she was hit outside the White House.

Anonymous: And then severe ear pain started. So I liken it to if you put a Q-tip too far and you bounce it off your eardrum. Well, imagine takin' a sharp pencil and just kinda pokin' that.

And this man told us he was among the first publicly known cases in 2016 from our embassy in Cuba. That's how the incidents became known as "Havana Syndrome." He's medically retired from an agency we can't name-- blind in one eye and struggling for balance.

A major medical study for the government was led by Dr. David Relman of Stanford University. In our 2022 report he told us…

Dr. David Relman: What we found was we thought clear evidence of an injury to the auditory and vestibular system of the brain. Everything starting with the inner ear where humans perceive sound and sense balance, and then translate those perceptions into brain electrical signals.

His study found, "directed pulsed (radio frequency) energy…appears to be the most plausible mechanism…" For example, a focused beam of microwaves or acoustic ultrasound.

More than 100 officials or family members have unexplained, persistent, symptoms.