A senior Canadian federal scientist has alleged that the government shut down an investigation into a mystery brain illness in New Brunswick that he believes may have affected 350 people.
He is the second federal scientist to accuse the government of deliberately halting the investigation and to say that the caseload is higher than the government has acknowledged.
Health officials in the eastern province first said in 2021 that 40 people were suffering from an unexplained neurological condition. A year later, a committee assembled by the province determined that the patients probably had been misdiagnosed and were suffering from other diseases.
In a leaked email seen by the Guardian, Prof Samuel Weiss, a neuroscientist working for the Canadian federal agency responsible for funding medical research, wrote that the government had deliberately curtailed the search for an explanation.
This is the best summary I could come up with:
In a leaked email seen by the Guardian, Prof Samuel Weiss, a neuroscientist working for the Canadian federal agency responsible for funding medical research, wrote that the government had deliberately curtailed the search for an explanation.
The spokesperson outlined how medical professionals in New Brunswick had a duty to notify authorities of certain diseases, and said the department was assisting Dr Alier Marrero, who initially raised concerns about patients he was following.
“Public Health New Brunswick has had ongoing discussions with PHAC on this file and has worked in partnership with the national agency several times to support Dr Marrero,” the spokesperson said.
While the province’s investigative committee concluded there was no “cluster” of patients with a mystery illness, the leaked emails show that senior research scientists remain unconvinced.
The Guardian has reported previously that 1,000 pages of internal documents obtained by freedom of information requests showed that early on in the investigation the province’s department of environment and public health units began eagerly exploring the possibility of environmental causes alongside their federal counterparts.
And I feel that there is a moral and ethical responsibility for other officials to step in,” said Stacie Quigley Cormier, whose 23-year-old daughter Gabrielle is suffering from a neurological disorder that has left her with muscle loss and shaking.
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