Residents in New Jersey and the wider tri-state area claim they have become mysteriously ill after seeing drones in the sky.
After witnessing or reading about the devices, residents revealed how they started coughing, suffering from a blocked or runny nose or experienced puffy, watery eyes.
One woman in New Jersey said she became so sick it felt like she was ‘coughing up my lung’, while a second in New York City said her blocked sinuses must be because of the drones over Staten Island.
DailyMail.com heard from another New Jersey resident who said they had developed a stuffy nose and swollen runny eyes after the drones flew over their home.
But doctors told DailyMail.com after reviewing the symptoms that it was ‘extremely unlikely’ these sicknesses were linked to the drones.
They pointed out it was now the start of flu season and other illnesses like Covid, RSV and norovirus become more common around this time.
Dr Thomas Moore, an infectious diseases expert, said: ‘It is entertaining to try to blame sickness on the condensation trails of planes or drones, but the actual explanation is much more mundane.
‘It is respiratory virus season, and just being around humans at this time of year can cause you to get ill.’
Dr Bill Schaffner, also an infectious diseases expert, added: ‘This is not being beamed down from above but spread among ourselves, and it is not too late to get vaccinated.
Some people have been reporting falling ill after viewing the drones
In New Jersey, firefighters have been asked to wear hazmat suits if they need to handle a drone that has crashed
‘I don’t think we have to worry about a relationship between the drones and symptoms of people down below.
‘We are at the beginning of respiratory virus season, and a lot of people will start to develop coughing, sneezing and not feeling well just by co-incidence.’
People’s reports come as unexplained drone sightings have mounted throughout the Northeast, which have been spotted over military bases and airports in recent weeks.
The FBI, White House and officials from other agencies have said there is no evidence the drones pose a threat to public safety.
An official from the FBI added: ‘I think there has been a slight over-reaction.’
Homeland Security secretary Alejandro Mayorkas added: ‘If there is any reason for concern, if we identify any foreign involvement or criminal activity, we will communicate with the American public accordingly.’
In one case, a woman in the tri-state area posted about her illness on TikTok with the caption: ‘I’m not saying it has anything to do with the drones, but I’m also not NOT saying it has anything to do with the drones.’
In the video, she said: ‘Do you live in the tri-state area and are you sick like me?
‘My sickness started out as pains like everywhere, my entire body hurt, my hair hurt… and then it just kept morphing into different stages.
Swarms of drones have been spotted in the skies of New Jersey for weeks, sparking officials to call for a ‘limited state of emergency’
‘I had the water works dripping from my nose where I went through two boxes of tissues in as many days, where all I could do was kinda go from the couch to the bed and back again… and then we moved on to the stuffed up sinuses.’
In another video posted yesterday, Andrea — an artist in New York City’s Lower East Side — also linked her illness to the drones.
‘I’m sick with this sinus congestion because of the drones over New Jersey and Staten Island, it’s pretty close to here. I think that’s what it is.
‘Every night I am feeling worse and worse, and last night was like the worst night of them all, and it turns out the drones were shooting, they were shooting, I think that’s what caused my sinus infection.’
And in a third video that New Jersey resident Shawna posted, she said: ‘Anyone else really f****** sick and coughing up a lung right before Christmas and it didn’t start happening until the drones showed up?’
Illnesses tend to surge around this time of year because of a mixture of people staying indoors more to beat the cold and mixing more over the Christmas and New Year periods.
Latest surveillance suggests about 5.4 percent of Covid tests were detecting the virus in the week to December 7, up from the 3.9 percent a month ago.
The state’s governor Phil Murphy has said that the drones do not pose a risk to public safety
Hospitalizations for flu-like illness are also rising, up 14 percent to 3.3 percent of patient admissions in the week to December 7 compared to 2.9 percent two weeks beforehand according to data.
And there are also similar upticks being detected in cases of RSV and norovirus.
New Jersey is also one of the eight states in the US that are now recording ‘moderate’ levels of flu-like illness, a sign the state’s flu season is starting to take off.
Dr Moore added: ‘Just breathing can actually cause someone to exhale invisible droplets that can travel at least 18 inches from someone’s face, while speaking can cause the droplets to travel three feet.
‘These droplets can carry respiratory pathogens like viruses, and can then be breathed in by others causing an infection.
‘At the same time, the cold weather causes people to spend more time crowded together indoors, raising the likelihood that they will breathe in the droplets and get an infection.’
He said the symptoms people were describing sounded similar to the flu or another respiratory infection.
The drones first appeared over New Jersey’s skies more than a month ago, and are now spotted every night — occasionally more than 50 at any one time.
Biden has tasked the federal Government with establishing the cause of the apparent ‘swarms’, and has struggled to offer an explanation.
The aircraft have been spotted in coastal areas, around the Picatinny Arsenal and over Donald Trump’s golf course in Bedminster.