Disgusting,.  Was just ready to send this and
thought...........hmmmmmmmmmm.......who is this McSweegan.................
Voila

http://www.newsmax.com/archives/articles/2003/7/30/191652.shtml
"Earlier this month, the committee launched an investigation into the case
of Edward McSweegan, a scientist at the NIH with a salary of $100,000 who
claims to have been given no true tasks or responsibilities for the past
eight years. McSweegan said he was demoted from his position as program
officer for Lyme disease in 1995 for criticizing a Lyme disease support
group and since then has been relegated to menial tasks such as preparing
coffee and forwarding messages."

"In a July 10th letter to the NIH, the committee said, "Based on these
reports, and the Committee's continuing interest in concerns about whether
NIH is wisely managing both its employees and its increased financial
resources, we are initiating an examination of the allegations made by Dr.
McSweegan and broader issues arising possibly from his allegations."

AND THIS........
http://www.humanticsfoundation.com/disinfoagents.htm
"Many believe "Chuck P Adams" is Edward McSweegan, Lyme scientist paid not
to work. I'm serious ... here is a CBS article on him from 2003.
http://www.humanticsfoundation.com/disinfoagents.htm
EXCERPT:
CBS) "There's nothing to do. There's nothing to pretend to do," laments Dr.
Edward McSweegan.
McSweegan once managed a large portfolio of research at the National
Institutes of Health (NIH), but his work days have been pretty much empty
since March 1996.
It's not that he doesn't want to work. He says they won't let him.
Meantime, taxpayers are covering his generous paycheck, reports CBS News
Correspondent Sharyl Attkisson.
He is also the author on a horrific piece on Lyme Disease posted on the
website of the dubious and discredited and highly questionable
quackwatch.com. As with most of the quackwatch.com propaganda ... it has
some truth mixed in with many scientific whoppers.
He advertises one of the quackwatch teams proud accomplishments ... a
website called www.ilena-rosenthal.com which has many stolen and morphed
photos of me with quackwatch inspired captions ... purchased by Coleah
Penley Ayers of the SBIPrivate Club.
He seems to specialize in personal attacks based on his opinion of other's
appearances, and like an Impotent Dictator ... brags that he "always wins."
What are you winning Chuckie? "

http://energycommerce.house.gov/108/Letters/07102003_1022.htm
Committee Expands Investigation Of NIH Management Issues

http://uttm.com/stories/2003/06/26/eveningnews/main560528.shtml

Sheri

ARTICLE.................
Getting the flu vaccine: Erring on the side of caution
By EDWARD McSWEEGAN, For The Capital

I'm standing in line at work waiting for my annual flu shot and thinking
about numbers.

About 36,000 Americans die each year from flu. With a national population
of 288 million, my chances of dying from flu are about 1 in 10,000.
Actually, my chances are even less because 90 percent of flu deaths occur
among people aged 65 and older. Given the numbers, I probably do not need a
flu shot.

But I'm also in line to help protect the elderly and the chronically ill.
If I get vaccinated, I'm not likely to contract the flu and pass it on to
others less able to fight it off. That's the beauty of the "herd immunity"
effect: the vaccinated protect the unvaccinated simply by not catching and
passing on infections.

There seems to be enough flu vaccine this year for everyone who wants it.
There have been shortages in the past. There could be in the future. Twenty
years ago, there were 25 to 30 vaccine companies in the U.S. and five or
six that made flu vaccine. Today, there are five U.S. companies and only
two or three foreign and domestic sources of flu vaccine.

The current vaccine is a mix of two viruses from last year's flu season and
a new virus expected to be circulating this year. The vaccine recipe
changes from year to year depending on data from a worldwide surveillance
system, some committee guesswork and a Rube Goldberg production process
that involves growing the viruses in tens of thousands of chicken eggs.

The 2005-2006 vaccine does not include the potentially dangerous bird flu
virus, H5N1. So maybe I'm standing in the wrong line. Maybe I should be in
line at the University of Maryland Medical School where an experimental
H5N1 bird flu vaccine is being tested.

H5N1 is the bird virus discovered in Hong Kong in 1997. It has been
spreading across China, Asia and Eastern Europe, forcing these nations to
kill 150 million domestic birds. The virus also has killed about 120
people, and has a mortality rate of about 50 percent. The great dread among
scientists and governments is that this virus, with its high mortality
rate, could mutate to acquire high transmissibility, sparking a pandemic.

In preparation for such an event the federal government announced plans to
spend $7.1 billion on pandemic preparedness and released a 396-page
pandemic plan (pandemicflu.gov). Will it work? Is there still time? A
federal health official told MSNBC, "Delays in these aggressive and
accelerated development programs are not unexpected or unprecedented."

Of course, nothing may happen. Or we could be looking at the wrong virus.
Other viruses have been making the jump from bird to human. A virus known
as H9N2 emerged in Hong Kong in 1999. Another, H7N7, appeared in the
Netherlands in 2003. Then, of course, there is the Mother of All Bird Flu
Viruses, the H1N1 strain that wiped out 5 percent of the planet's
population during the catastrophic 1918 pandemic. By 1919 it had
disappeared: destroyed by survivors' immune systems or buried with the dead.

H1N1 was gone, but not forgotten. And a few weeks ago it was resurrected
through a combination of slick molecular genetics and old-fashioned grave
robbing. Like Dr. Frankenstein's monster, the H1N1 virus was literally
stitched together from bits and pieces of genetic material extracted from
the lungs of long-dead soldiers and a woman buried in the permafrost of
1918 Alaska. The viral menace that swept across the globe 87 years ago is
back and sitting in a laboratory at the Centers for Disease Control in
Atlanta.

Why resurrect such a contagious and virulent creature? Scientists are
hoping to learn more about its origin and what molecular quirks made it so
deadly. So far, the virus has not given up many of its secrets, except to
show it is deadly to mice and human lung cells.

This is dangerous research with a dangerous pathogen. Mary Shelley's Dr.
Frankenstein said of his own research, "When I found so astonishing a power
placed within my hands I hesitated a long time concerning the manner in
which I should employ it." Of course, Frankenstein's creature eventually
escaped.

Accidents happen. In 2004 there were three separate lab accidents involving
the escape of the SARS virus. In April 2005 hundreds of samples of the 1957
pandemic Asian flu virus were mailed accidentally to labs all over the
world. The 1977 Russian flu likely was caused by the accidental release of
a sample of the 1950 epidemic flu strain.

Sometimes we have more to fear from our own cleverness and technologies
than we do from the vagaries of Mother Nature.

---

Edward McSweegan has a Ph.D. in microbiology and lives in Crofton. He works
on and writes about infectious disease issues. He may be contacted at
emcsweegan@verizon.net.
http://www.hometownannapolis.com/cgi-bin/read/2005/12_04-20/LIF