How Dr. Anna Chacko Played Congressman Brad Miller Like a Violin
Late in the afternoon of December 4th of 2006, laboratory staff of the Veterans Administration Pittsburgh Health Services (VAPHS) based on an order from Dr. Mona Melhem, the associate chief of clinical services, a few minutes earlier - in less than three hours destroying a unique collection of legionella and other isolates that had been collected by two prominent infectious disease researchers over their nearly three decades of research.
So starts a report following an investigation by the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Science and Technology headed by Congressman Brad Miller of the 13th District of North Carolina. The events described in that paragraph were the unfortunate culmination of several months of what everyone describes as an acrimonious process. The “two prominent infectious disease researchers” are Dr. Janet Stout and Dr. Joseph Vu. Both were fired in July. Both had been working out of the lab at the Pittsburgh VA. Both had collected rare strands of legionella for nearly three de