Comment by boomboomsubban | Hacker News Reader

Comment by boomboomsubban | Hacker News Reader

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>It's definitely quite bizarre that there are now at least 3 reports of it happening in the DC area

No it's not. DC is one of the most paranoid areas around, a significant portion of the population constantly thinks someone is out to get them. Three of those people now have symptoms without a clear medical cause.

>wouldn't make sense if it were just a dog reacting to their owner's anxiety

But it would make sense that the sick, stressed owner accidentally fed the dog something bad, or accidentally kicked the dog without realizing it, or forgot to feed the dog forcing it to eat something bad.

As for Polymeropoulos, he felt sick, completely got over it, then started worrying that the illness may have been the Havana syndrome. Only then did the more serious ailments occur.

Do you have any evidence to back up the claim that “a significant portion of the DC population constantly thinks someone is out to get them”? Admittedly anecdotal but I live in DC and I wouldn’t characterize myself or anyone I know in the area that way

> Do you have any evidence to back up the claim that “a significant portion of the DC population constantly thinks someone is out to get them”?

Not OP, but I'd point to people working in Fort Meade and Langley who are paranoid by trade.

Being the center of political and military power means a lot of people have to constantly worry that their political and geopolitical enemies are trying to get one over on them. I'm not saying they're like Dale Gribble, but a certain part of them is professionally paranoid.

Sure. While there is a higher concentration of those type of people in DC than elsewhere, that is not the same thing as the DC population.

We disagree on what constitutes a "significant portion of the population" means then. Even at 1% of the population fitting that description would be ~50,000 people, meaning 3 of them with weird symptoms would not be surprising.

I definitely acknowledge the DC cases are the ones that are most likely to be psychogenic. I just found it interesting that different dogs were allegedly affected both there and overseas. And as for Polymeropoulos in particular, I'm not sure.

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