Cluster-F**ked! How Media Derailed Scientists in New Brunswick's Medical Mystery

For the past four years Canadaland has been investigating a cluster of terrible illnesses in New Brunswick. A group of people were suffering from debilitating symptoms that nobody could explain.

Those people lost neurological function. Some lost their lives. What was afflicting them? Was it a prion illness like mad cow disease? Was it somehow linked to shellfish? Might it have to do with blue-green algae blooms or environmental contamination from heavy metals or contamination from the herbicide glyphosate? Was it contagious?

Today we speak with a man who was at the centre of the investigation into this cluster of illnesses. Dr. Michael Coulthart was a microbiologist working with the Public Health Agency of Canada. He was the head of Canada’s Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD) surveillance system, which surveys all of Canada for prion diseases like mad cow. And he was one of the lead investigators on a short-lived federal/provincial team of scientists investigating what was going on in New Brunswick before the province shut investigation down.

Throughout our years of covering this story he never agreed to speak with us directly. We suspected that he was not allowed to. But just a few months back, Dr. Michael Coulthart retired, and shortly after that, just a few weeks ago, he sat down with our reporter, Julian Abraham.

Host: Bruce Thorson

Credits: Caleb Thompson (Post Production), Bruce Thorson (Senior Producer), Tristan Capacchione (Senior Production Supervisor), Jesse Brown (Editor and Publisher)

Additional music by Audio Network

Fact checking by Lucie Laumonier

More information:

JAMA Study - Jama Network

Top Canadian scientist alleges in leaked emails he was barred from studying mystery brain illness - The Guardian

Scientist working on mystery N.B. brain condition claimed he was 'cut off' for 'political' reasons - CBC

'The answer cannot be nothing': The battle over Canada's mystery brain disease - BBC

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