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== Controversy == === U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs' cover-up of GWI === * Aug 28, 1997, [http://gulfwarvets.com/arison/gws.htm The Cover-up of Gulf War Syndrome -- A Question of Natinal Integrity]<ref>{{Cite web | url=http://gulfwarvets.com/arison/gws.htm | title = The Cover-Up of Gulf War Syndrome -- A Question of National Integrity | last = Harrison III | first = H. Lindsey | date = Aug 28, 1997 | website = gulfwarvets.com|archive-url=|archive-date=|access-date=2018-08-26}}</ref> * Mar 13, 2013, [http://gulfwarvets.com/va_cover_up_data.htm Whistleblower: Veterans Affairs Covered Up Data on Mental Health, Gulf War Syndrome]<ref>{{Cite web | url=http://gulfwarvets.com/va_cover_up_data.htm | title = Whistleblower: Veterans Affairs Covered Up Data on Mental Health, Gulf War Syndrome | last = Reno | first = Jamie | date = Mar 13, 2013 | website = gulfwarvets.com|archive-url=|archive-date=|access-date=2018-08-26}}</ref> * Mar 13, 2013, [https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2013/03/13/whistleblower-alleges-veterans-affairs-cover-up/1979839/ Researcher says officials covered up vets' health data]<ref name="USAT-2013">{{Cite news | url=https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2013/03/13/whistleblower-alleges-veterans-affairs-cover-up/1979839/ | title = Researcher says officials covered up vets' health data | last = Kennedy | first = Kelly | date = Mar 13, 2013|work=USA TODAY|access-date=2018-08-26|archive-url=|archive-date=|language=en}}</ref> - USA Today <blockquote>WASHINGTON — [[U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs]] officials purposely manipulate or hide data that would support the claims of veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan to prevent paying costly benefits, a former VA researcher told a House subcommittee Wednesday.</blockquote><blockquote>"If the studies produce results that do not support the office of public health's unwritten policy, they do not release them," said [[Steven Coughlin]], a former epidemiologist in the VA's public health department.</blockquote><blockquote>"This applies to data regarding adverse health consequences of environmental exposures, such as burn pits in Iraq and Afghanistan, and toxic exposures in the Gulf War," Coughlin said. "On the rare occasions when embarrassing study results are released, data are manipulated to make them unintelligible."<ref name="USAT-2013" /></blockquote> * Apr 12, 2013, [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OYKMMbPp_Do&feature=youtu.be&t=546 Dr. Robert Haley, What Caused Gulf War Illness]<ref name=":9" /> (Video) Dr. Haley speaks about the United States Department of Veterans Affairs' cover-up of US Gulf War troop illness being due to environmental exposure. * Mar 14, 2014, [https://www.forbes.com/sites/rebeccaruiz/2014/03/24/congress-confronts-va-over-gulf-war-illness-research/#7648eec961fb Congress Confronts VA Over Gulf War Illness Research]<ref>{{Cite news | url=https://www.forbes.com/sites/rebeccaruiz/2014/03/24/congress-confronts-va-over-gulf-war-illness-research/#7648eec961fb | title = Congress Confronts VA Over Gulf War Illness Research | last = Ruiz | first = Rebecca | date = Mar 24, 2014|work=Forbes|access-date=2018-08-26|archive-url=|archive-date=|language=en}}</ref> * Mar 30, 2015, [https://www.disabledveterans.org/2015/03/30/former-va-chief-of-staff-linked-to-gulf-war-scandal/ Former VA Chief Of Staff Linked To Gulf War Scandal]<ref>{{Cite news | url=https://www.disabledveterans.org/2015/03/30/former-va-chief-of-staff-linked-to-gulf-war-scandal/ | title = Former VA Chief Of Staff Linked To Gulf War Scandal | last = Krause | first = Benjamin | date = 2015-03-30|work=DisabledVeterans.Org|access-date=2018-08-26|archive-url=|archive-date=|language=en-US}}</ref> ===Simon Wessely's past stress related beliefs in GWI === Professor [[Simon Wessely]], psychiatric paradigm researcher of [[chronic fatigue syndrome]], believed that [[stress]] was the common denominator of GWI. * 2004, Interview with ''New Scientist'', [https://www.newscientist.com/article/dn6609-us-in-u-turn-over-gulf-war-syndrome/ US in U-turn over Gulf war syndrome]<ref name="NS2018" /> <blockquote>Wessely told ''New Scientist'': “There is not one single cause for the ill health,” adding that he believes we may never fully know what happened to the people who became ill.</blockquote><blockquote>Wessely asked both Gulf and non-Gulf veterans about 50 standard symptoms. “Gulf veterans reported every symptom twice as often,” he told the Lloyd inquiry. If there were a unique Gulf syndrome, some would be relatively more frequent in the Gulf group. “But they are just experiencing more ill health. There is no unique syndrome here.”</blockquote><blockquote>Wessely favours psychological explanations for Gulf war illnesses. The only thing that could have affected so many different people, he says, was stress, especially anxiety about chemical weapons, misinformation about Gulf war syndrome afterwards, and the many vaccinations Gulf troops received. His team found the more vaccine Gulf, but not non-Gulf veterans, received the more likely they are to be ill.</blockquote><blockquote>Haley says the questions in Wessely’s study were too vague to distinguish between a real syndrome and people who have, say, occasional dizziness or joint pain. He says this will confound efforts to uncover a meaningful pattern behind the veterans’ symptoms.<ref name="NS2018" /></blockquote> * 2006, A study published in [[The Lancet|''The Lancet'']] that Wessely was involved with, ''The health of UK military personnel who deployed to the 2003 Iraq war: a cohort study''<ref name="Hotopf2006">{{Cite journal | last = Hotopf | first = Matthew | authorlink = Matthew Hotopf | last2 = Hull | first2 = Lisa | last3 = Fear | first3 = Nicola T | last4 = Browne | first4 = Tess | last5 = Horn | first5 = Oded | last6 = Iversen | first6 = Amy | last7 = Jones | first7 = Margaret | last8 = Murphy | first8 = Dominic | last9 = Bland | first9 = Duncan | date = 2006 | others=Earnshaw, Mark; Greenberg, Neil; Hacker Hughes, Jamie; Tate, Rosemary; Dandeker, Christopher; Rona, Robert; Wessely, Simon | title = The health of UK military personnel who deployed to the 2003 Iraq war: a cohort study| url = https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(06)68662-5/fulltext|journal=The Lancet|language=English|volume=367|issue=9524 | pages = 1731–1741|doi=10.1016/S0140-6736(06)68662-5|issn=0140-6736|via=}}</ref> interpretation: <blockquote>For regular personnel in the UK armed forces, deployment to the Iraq war has not, so far, been associated with significantly worse health outcomes, apart from a modest effect on multiple physical symptoms. There is evidence of a clinically and statistically significant effect on health in reservists.<ref name="Hotopf2006" /></blockquote> * 2006, [http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/something-old-something-new-something-borrowed-something-blue-the-true-story-of Something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue: The true story of Gulf War Syndrome]<ref name=":10">{{Cite web | url=http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/something-old-something-new-something-borrowed-something-blue-the-true-story-of | title = Something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue: The true story of Gulf War Syndrome|website=Gresham College|access-date=2018-08-29}}</ref> <blockquote>So my story then: something old, we have seen some of these before; something new, there was a definite hazard with some of the precautions that were taken to protect Gulf veterans; something borrowed, soldiers can also be civilians and the things that concern us also can concern them; something blue, the psychiatry of Gulf War is the psychiatry more of [[depression]] than it is of [[Post-traumatic stress disorder|PTSD]].<ref name=":10" /></blockquote> * 2010, A second study [https://www.kcl.ac.uk/kcmhr/publications/assetfiles/iraqafghan/Fear2010-consequencesofdeployment.pdf What are the consequences of deployment to Iraq and Afghanistan on the mental health of the UK armed forces? A cohort study]<ref name="Fear2010">{{Cite web | url=https://www.kcl.ac.uk/kcmhr/publications/assetfiles/iraqafghan/Fear2010-consequencesofdeployment.pdf | title=What are the consequences of deployment to Iraq and Afghanistan on the mental health of the UK armed forces?: A cohort study | last = Fear | first = Nicola T | last2 = Jones | first2 = Margaret | date = 2010 | website = kcl.ac.uk|others=Jones, Norman; Greenberg, Neil; Landau, Sabine; Dandeker, Christopher; Rona, Roberta J; Hotopf, Mathew; Wessely, Simon|archive-url=|archive-date=|access-date= | last3 = Murphy | first3 = Dominic | last4 = Hull | first4 = Lisa | last5 = Civerson | first5 = Amy | last6 = Coker | first6 = Bolaji | last7 = Machell | first7 = Louise | last8 = Sundin | first8 = Josefin | last9 = Woodhead | first9 = Charlotte|type=PDF}}</ref> interpretation: <blockquote>Symptoms of common mental disorders and alcohol misuse remain the most frequently reported mental disorders in UK armed forces personnel, whereas the prevalence of probable [[post-traumatic stress disorder]] was low. These findings show the importance of continued health surveillance of UK military personnel.<ref name="Fear2010" /></blockquote> * 2011, [https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-12195884 Two decades on, battle goes on over 'Gulf War Syndrome']<ref name="BBC-1">{{Cite news | url=https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-12195884 | title = Battle continues over Gulf War Syndrome | last = Hughes | first = Caroline Hawley and Stuart | date = 2011|work=BBC News|access-date=2018-08-26|language=en-GB}}</ref> - BBC News <blockquote>Professor [[Simon Wessely]] is director of the King's Centre for Military Health Research in London and an adviser to the Ministry of Defence. He does not believe Gulf War Syndrome exists as a distinct illness.</blockquote><blockquote>Even so, he has no doubt that a significant number of Gulf veterans became ill as a direct result of their military service.</blockquote><blockquote>"The evidence is incontrovertible that there is a Gulf War health effect," he says.</blockquote><blockquote>"Something to do with the Gulf has affected health and no-one serious has ever disputed that.</blockquote><blockquote>"Is there a problem? Yes there is. Is it Gulf War Syndrome or isn't it? I think that's a statistical and technical question that's of minor interest."</blockquote><blockquote>The Ministry of Defence echoes Professor Wessely's view.<ref name="BBC-1" /></blockquote>
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