Scrutable

Forty-eight people from the same small Canadian province struck with a baffling mix of symptoms including insomnia, impaired motor function and hallucinations such as nightmarish visions of the dead.

A quixotic neurologist working 12-hour days to decipher the clues.

Swirling conspiracy theories blaming the illness on cellphone towers, fracking or even Covid-19 vaccines.

These are just some plot lines of a mystery that has stumped Canada’s medical establishment, attracted the attention of some of the world’s top neurologists and fanned fears among residents of New Brunswick, a picturesque province of about 770,000 on Canada’s Atlantic coast. In the past six years, dozens of people have fallen ill from the disease and six people have died.