The US Embassy in Hanoi issued a statement that Harris had finally flown to Vietnam after a “careful assessment of the situation.” The embassy cited two “unusual health incidents” with its American employees as a reason for the delay. She did not give further details, nor did she state who had these health problems.
White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki later said a case of “Havana syndrome” was reported from Vietnam before Harris left, but has not yet been confirmed. According to her, the authorities take the reported incident seriously, evaluate the situation and consider the vice-president’s visit to Vietnam to be safe.
Havana Syndrome is a term for unexplained health problems of American diplomats, their relatives or staff of the US representation abroad, which were first reported in the Cuban capital at the end of 2016, the case appeared in the media in 2017.
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At the time, some American and Canadian diplomats or their relatives complained of health problems after a short stay in Havana in the houses of diplomats and two hotels. They talked about hearing loss, headaches, dizziness or sleep disorders. Many claimed to have heard high-pitched sounds.
Some American media immediately began speculating about acoustic attacks by the Cuban secret services or poisoning with poison or biological weapons. The then US President Donald Trump called the incidents a very unusual attack, for which the Cuban communist government is responsible, and the US then withdrew more than half of the diplomatic staff from Havana.
Unexplained complications
The cause of the health problems of American and Canadian diplomats has not yet been explained, but doctors have ruled out poisoning or a viral disease. The Western media reported on several scientific studies that interpreted the cause differently.
According to some experts, this could be, for example, a side effect of a poorly assembled listening device. Two scientists from the universities of California and Lincoln, British, concluded from an analysis of a recording made by diplomats in Cuba that crickets may have been behind the mysterious sounds.
Cases of “Havana syndrome” later appeared in diplomats and staff at US missions in China, Russia, Colombia and Uzbekistan, and in July this year in Vienna. This month, the US State Department reported suspicions of several such cases in Germany.
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