The razor-thin line between contagion and connection | Dan Taberski (re-release)

In 2011, 19 girls at LeRoy Junior-Senior High School developed sudden tics, spasms, stammers and involuntary sounds resembling Tourette syndrome, with cases reaching double digits within weeks. Investigations considered Lyme disease, heavy metals, water safety, air quality and mold before state officials, the school board and doctors concluded the outbreak was mass psychogenic illness. Jessica initially rejected that explanation as “bullshit,” because she believed the girls’ symptoms were real.

Dan Taberski describes mass psychogenic illness as the rapid spread of real physical symptoms among people when tests reveal no organic cause. It is rare, he says, and usually involves underlying stress or trauma. In LeRoy, the affected girls were connected through relationships and shared activities, and the symptoms had almost disappeared by summer break. Taberski says some girls’ private traumatic situations may have made them more susceptible, but the reason the outbreak occurred there cannot be known for certain.

For Taberski, the term “mass hysteria” captures a social and cultural dimension that “mass psychogenic illness” can obscure. He points to the history of “hysteria” being used to dismiss women’s symptoms by attributing them to the uterus, while arguing that outbreaks can emerge at cultural stress points, or “fissures of society.” Some people regard Havana syndrome as an example, though the episode presents that as a view rather than a settled conclusion.

A mystery rash reported among students in dozens of schools in 2001 often disappeared when children went home and returned at school. Tests found no bacteria, virus or toxic exposure to explain it. Taberski says fear of toxic exposure may have contributed; epidemiologists believe a rash that began on the day news broke of an anthrax diagnosis in Florida expressed collective anxiety after 9/11. These cases illustrate how shared fears and social settings may shape symptoms without making the symptoms fabricated.

Taberski also tracked 332 reports of accidental fentanyl poisoning among police officers in the field, but found only one toxicology report showing fentanyl, and that result has not been independently confirmed. The American Society of Medical Toxicology says an overdose through the type of exposure described is near impossible. Taberski notes that comparable symptoms are not reported among hospital staff who handle fentanyl or people who regularly use it. He suggests bodycam footage could help spread the reports: recorded symptoms are watched by others and may contribute to additional symptoms and videos. The evidence described does not establish a confirmed pattern of fentanyl poisoning.

Rose says she had Tourette’s from age three, and her tics became much more severe while other girls at school were ticking. She described punching herself and permanently damaging her right eye. At Tourette’s camp, she and others tick more and unconsciously pick up one another’s tics, which she welcomes as a connection with people like her. Her experience underscores Taberski’s central tension: symptoms can spread through social contact, while the same sharing can offer belonging rather than harm.