A retired government scientist has made an extraordinary allegation that the Swine Flu virus, H1N1, is the result of genetic testing that went disastrously wrong at a US research laboratory in Georgia.
The man, Reginald Dwyer, 68, worked at the USAF National Toxicology Institute in Atlanta until last January, when he left due to health reasons.
Mr Dwyer told his own physician that he often felt unwell, although he could not explain why at first. Later, he put his lethargy and general ill-health down to the research he was doing with pigs.
Dwyer spoke of groundbreaking experiments that were being carried out, involving mating between humans and swine. After union had taken place, participants often experienced side effects that could not easily be explained. Three people, including one woman, subsequently died, and others suffered from a kind of influenza which was extremely virulent.
At the time Mr Dwyer left his employment, scientists in other labs had told him they were working on new developments in weapons research with viruses derived from pigs, and he fears that, somehow, toxic materials from both experiments may have become contaminated, and may also have allowed the harmless Swine Flu virus to mutate into a dealier strain.
Mr Dwyer is due to publish his theories in a leading US scientific journal later this month.
