WASHINGTON, Sept. 2 — Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard is working to declassify documents on the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic and on Anomalous Health Incidents, commonly known as Havana syndrome, before she leaves the administration at the end of June, an ODNI official told the Daily Caller News Foundation.
“DNI Gabbard is actively working to declassify information about the COVID-19 pandemic and Anomalous Health Incidents before June 30,” the official said, describing a race against the calendar to release the materials before her scheduled departure. ## The technical reality of the two files Havana syndrome refers to a cluster of symptoms first reported in 2016 by a CIA officer stationed in Havana, Cuba.
American diplomats, spies and other officials abroad have since reported incidents that typically involve a loud noise and intense pressure in the head and ears, followed by severe headaches, brain fog, blurred vision, tinnitus and vertigo. The intelligence picture on causation remains fractured. A declassified January 2025 report shows five intelligence community agencies assess it is “very unlikely” that a foreign actor caused the incidents.
One agency, however, assesses it is “likely” that a foreign actor developed a novel weapon behind some Havana syndrome symptoms, while another puts the odds at roughly even. The COVID-19 file carries its own contested history.
CIA whistleblower James Erdman III testified to the Senate in May that some in the intelligence community suppressed evidence pointing to a lab accident in Wuhan, China. Congress unanimously passed a law in 2023 to declassify intelligence tied to the Wuhan Institute of Virology, the high-security laboratory with links to the Chinese military at the pandemic’s centre. ## What was withheld Then-Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines responded with a brief summary report. Erdman says he reviewed thousands of pages of material she never released.
He further alleged that Anthony Fauci — whose institute at the National Institutes of Health directed money to the lab for coronavirus engineering research — connected the intelligence community to preferred scientists to advance the theory that the virus emerged naturally. The declassification push arrives amid separate reporting on Fauci: the Daily Caller News Foundation obtained an email exchange indicating that in 2011 he instructed an aide to permanently delete a message about a journalist’s warning on risky viral research.
That reporting alleges Fauci destroyed public records despite sworn testimony to the contrary; he did not respond to a request for comment. The detail that matters now is what Gabbard’s release actually contains.
The ODNI official offered no timeline for individual documents, only the June 30 deadline. With congressional scrutiny on both files showing no sign of easing, the question is whether the declassified record settles either debate — or simply sharpens it.
