Michael Coulthart, head of the PHAC’s Creutzfeldt–Jakob Disease Surveillance System, who was involved in the early days of the investigation has said he believes something real is going on that cannot be explained by the alleged bias or personal agenda of one neurologist. “My strongest hypothesis is that there is some environmental exposure – or perhaps a combination of exposures – that is triggering and/or accelerating a variety of neurodegenerative syndromes,” he wrote in an October, 2023, e-mail to another PHAC employee. He added that this complex scenario allowed politicians “to conclude nothing coherent is going on.”