Havana Syndrome study shut down after mishandling data

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A long-term study of Havana Syndrome patients was shut down after a National Institute of Health (NIH) internal review board found the mishandling of medical data and participants who reported being pressured to join the research. The study had until now not found evidence linking the participants to the same symptoms and brain injuries. The internal investigation that halted the study was prompted by complaints from the participants about unethical practices.

This comes after the intelligence community released an interim report last year concluding a foreign adversary is "very unlikely" to be behind the symptoms hundreds of U.S. intelligence officers are experiencing, despite qualifying for U.S. government funded treatment of their brain injuries.

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"The NIH investigation found that regulatory and NIH policy requirements for informed consent were not met due to coercion, although not on the part of NIH researchers," an NIH spokesperson said in a statement to Fox News.

A former CIA officer, who goes by Adam to protect his identity, was not shocked that the study was shut down.

"The way the study was conducted, at best, was dishonest and, at worst, wades into the criminal side of the scale," Adam said.

Adam is Havana Syndrome's Patient Zero because he was the first to experience the severe sensory