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Science Forum Index » Medicine - Lyme Forum » NIH Scientist Says He's Paid To Do Nothing and troll on the
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| LunaTick |
 Posted: Sat Jan 20, 2007 8:33 pm |
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http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=mcsweegan+do+nothing&btnG=Google...
NIH Scientist Says He's Paid To Do Nothing
Agency Denies Administrator's 'Surreal Situation' of Collecting
$100,000 Salary for No Work
By Tania Branigan
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, July 4, 2003; Page A21
Every weekday at 6.30 a.m., Edward McSweegan climbs into his Volkswagen
Passat for the hour-long commute to the National Institutes of Health.
He has an office in Bethesda, a job title -- health scientist
administrator -- and an annual salary of about $100,000.
What McSweegan says he does not have -- and has not had for the last
seven years -- is any real work. He was hired by the National Institute
of Allergy and Infectious Diseases in 1988, but says his bosses
transferred the research grants he administered to other workers eight
years later, leaving him with occasional tasks more suitable for a
typist or "gofer."
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NIH officials denied the allegations earlier this week, but said they
would reexamine the issue after Sen. Charles E. Grassley (R-Iowa)
raised the issue in a letter to Health and Human Services Secretary
Tommy G. Thompson.
Grassley, who as chairman of the Senate Finance Committee has supported
budget increases for the NIH, learned of McSweegan's case when CBS News
contacted him for a story on the scientist. In the report that aired on
"CBS Evening News" on June 26, McSweegan said he had been paid to do
nothing for the past seven years.
McSweegan used to be NIH's program officer for Lyme disease but was
removed from the post in June 1995 after a dispute over his repeated
criticism of a politically influential support group for sufferers and
his allegations that NIH had been too accommodating of the group. He
had publicly described the Lyme Disease Foundation as "wacko" because
he disagreed with its theories about the disease. The dispute led to
his suspension without pay for two weeks for insubordination and
conduct unbecoming of a federal employee.
In spring 1996, his responsibilities for an unrelated program were also
removed. He maintains they have never been replaced.
In an interview Monday, Grassley accused NIH of "an absolute management
vacuum" and said it is "ludicrous" that the administrator is being paid
to do nothing.
"We want to make sure we get the most bang for our buck, the most
research for our dollars," the senator added.
John Burklow, a spokesman for NIH, said McSweegan has always been
assigned duties appropriate to his position and pay level.
"The claim that he is being compensated for doing nothing is completely
inaccurate," Burklow said.
According to NIH, McSweegan is director of the U.S.-Indo Vaccine Action
Program, and has traveled to countries such as Russia representing the
agency. He has also "produced reports and other work products."
But McSweegan said he has never been told he was director of the
program and knew of no such title. Three other people ran the project,
and his work for it -- such as arranging coffee for lunches and
forwarding messages -- was "the kind of work you would get an intern to
do."
He added that the Office of Global Health Affairs had organized and
paid for his trip to Russia, and that his only reports had been brief
accounts of meetings.
McSweegan said he struggles to fill his eight-hour workdays by reading,
exercising and writing fiction. He has self-published a bioterrorism
thriller and a science fiction novel, and is working on a third book.
But he says his six-page job description is the ultimate work of
creative writing and describes his position as "a bizarre, surreal
situation -- part Orwell, part Kafka and part Dilbert."
"It's not my idea," said McSweegan, 47. "I have pointed it out
repeatedly over the years. I suppose they are just waiting for me to
get bored and frustrated and quit. But I haven't been inclined to do
that, because my wife has a real job and we have compelling family
reasons for staying in the area.
"I just expect to do this for maybe four more years until my wife
retires," he said. "It would be nice to get a real job doing real
work." |
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| the 3rd Man |
| Posted: Sat Jan 20, 2007 8:55 pm |
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LunaTick wrote:
Quote: http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=mcsweegan+do+nothing&btnG=Google...
NIH Scientist Says He's Paid To Do Nothing
Agency Denies Administrator's 'Surreal Situation' of Collecting
$100,000 Salary for No Work
LMAO.
Yeah, Chuckles, I "seen" this before...
....does this mean I'm not "cheesesteak" anymore?
LOL...Chuck always "win's"....(what, exactly, no one seems to know)...
Halfwit. |
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| LunaTick |
| Posted: Sat Jan 20, 2007 11:14 pm |
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the 3rd Man wrote:
Quote: LunaTick wrote:
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=mcsweegan+do+nothing&btnG=Google...
NIH Scientist Says He's Paid To Do Nothing
Agency Denies Administrator's 'Surreal Situation' of Collecting
$100,000 Salary for No Work
LMAO.
Yeah, Chuckles, I "seen" this before...
...does this mean I'm not "cheesesteak" anymore?
LOL...Chuck always "win's"....(what, exactly, no one seems to know)...
Halfwit.
No, the cheesesteak thing was right. that has to do with another puppet
I know about. |
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| the 3rd Man |
| Posted: Sun Jan 21, 2007 12:43 am |
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LunaTick wrote:
Quote:
No, the cheesesteak thing was right. that has to do with another puppet
I know about.
Look...you really don't have a clue, do you?
The fact that Lisa and Kathleen got sucked in to your ridiculous little
act doesn't mean squat, anymore.
Neither one of them was playing with a full deck...and they had a NEED
to think you were "McSweegan".
So give it up...you're fooling no one...and puhleeeze...enough with
that crap about how you "do this for a living"?
You do WHAT, exactly?
Torment sick people? Try to provoke the mentally ill?
Uh-huh. And you are trying to tell us that you are being paid to do
this?
Get real.
You don't "win" shit...and you don't have the "IT" expertise to figure
out who I am or where I am posting from. You have no clue and I know
it.
You're completely full of crap...and what you don't understand is that
just about everyone besides Kathleen knows it.
Congratulations, though, you have managed to get just about
everyone...whatever "side" or faction they represent...pretty fully
disgusted with you...
I guess that is an accomplishment, of sorts, I guess.
Yeah, you're good...real goood. |
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