WASHINGTON, D.C. June 7 (DPI) – US and Canadian diplomats in southern China have been afflicted with a mysterious neurological illness, an episode not unlike that which occurred in Cuba several months ago. Various news outlets – including The Washington Post and The New York Times – have played it fairly straight with the story, reporting what little they know on the matter and offering little in the way of speculation.

Readers, on the other hand, have been more than happy to fill in the blanks of the story – of which there are many. For one thing, news outlets have been reluctant to mention that Canadian diplomats too have been hit with the same mysterious illness, a fact that might change the politics of the matter. In any case, the matter is serious and still unexplained: Symptoms are similar to those “following concussion or minor traumatic brain injury,” the State Department says, according to The Times.

One comment on nytimes.com in particular offered some meaty speculation that the illness afflicting diplomats are “unintentional side effects of either surveillance or anti-surveillance devices that are either being deployed against or by the U.S.” This unidentified poster wrote: “It makes no sense for a foreign actor to intentionally neurologically poison U.S. state dept. staff. It makes no sense for the U.S. to attack its own state dept intentionally and the current administration is not capable of this kind of deliberate or complex operation.

“Because the Havana embassy and the Guangzhou embassies have had recent renovations (I’m making this assumption as U.S. restored diplomatic relations in 2015 in Havana), I suspect it’s a poorly-designed anti-eavesdropping device that’s been developed by subcontractors and slapped into the buildings w/o proper testing.”

While such comments and their source cannot be immediately verified, there remains a degree of credibility in such comments, in the absence of a more substantive explanation.

Other most-recommended comments on NYTimes.com today:

I think this story really should have made note of the fact that Canadian diplomats in Cuba also have suffered the same symptoms and illness. This is significant as it takes this serious issue beyond a strictly American frame of reference.

This article left out the fact that not only did the Cubas deny any wrongdoing, they took the unprecedented step to invite the FBI to Cuba and conduct a joint investigation with Cuban police.
Instead, the Trump administration used the incident as a reason to roll back the relaxation of travel restrictions initiated by Obama.
So now that this issue has come to light thousands of miles from Cuba has the administration changed course?
And, despite the “strange illness’ showing up in China why would either Russia or China want to disrupt US relations with Cuba?
Or could it be that there are elements within our own government that want to turn the international clock back to the days of the cold war? Cuba, Russia China. There seems to be a pattern here.

I have engineering and a neurology backgrounds, and intuitively my suspicion is that there is a weapon(s) in these scenarios. It is likely that it emits a form of sound or pressure whose frequency and energy is able to cause damage to the nervous system. It is also likely that there is intelligence, military, or scientific expertise in this country that know what it is.

It’s worth noting that the Canadian embassy in Cuba also suffered a similar incident around the same time as that experienced by the US. It hasn’t shown up in either article I’ve read regarding the affliction, and it seems like pertinent information to add.
As to whether it was incidental or not (that is, caught in the area of effect of something targeting Americans), I am unsure…