CDC workers told to return to office on September 15, weeks after gunman attacked headquarters
Former Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Chief Medical Officer Debra Houry speaks to the media during a protest outside the CDC campus
By Zoe Sottile, Jamie Gumbrecht, CNN
(CNN) — Workers at the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have been told to return to the office September 15 – a little over a month after a gunman attacked the agency’s Atlanta campus, firing almost 500 shots and killing a police officer before dying of a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
The push for workers to return to the office was shared in an email to staff, a Health and Human Services spokesperson confirmed. The announcement comes just weeks after the August 8 attack left CDC staff reeling, with one staffer saying employees felt like “sitting ducks” as the shooter unloaded hundreds of bullets, around 200 of which struck six CDC buildings, leaving bullet holes in windows.
Employees, who were preparing to leave for the weekend, say they took cover under their desks as bullets flew over their heads. Many workers have been working remotely since.
CDC staffers whose workspaces remain impacted by the shooting will be assigned alternate spaces, according to the HHS spokesperson. The agency’s return-to-office plan was first reported by CNBC.
The shooting unfolded during a tumultuous time for the CDC: The agency, which is tasked with protecting Americans’ health, lost about a quarter of its staff during widespread reduction-in-force layoffs of federal employees led by the Trump administration earlier this year. And just earlier this week, at least 600 CDC employees received permanent termination notices, according to the American Federation of Government Employees.
This week, CDC Director Susan Monarez was ousted from her position after clashing with HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy over vaccine policy and her refusal to fire several veteran CDC leaders, according to people familiar with the situation. Her removal was followed by the resignations of several senior leaders. Late this week, Kennedy said Deputy HHS Secretary Jim O’Neill will serve as acting director of the CDC.
“Our agency is crumbling,” a source within the CDC, who is not allowed to speak to the media and did not want to be identified for fear of retribution, told CNN after Monarez’s departure.
The agency has also been the subject of dogged conspiracy theories surrounding the Covid-19 vaccine – which may have contributed to the deadly attack. The gunman, 30-year-old Patrick Joseph White, had expressed discontent with the Covid-19 vaccine in written documents recovered from his home. He “wanted to make the public aware of his public distrust of the vaccines,” Georgia Bureau of Investigation director Chris Hosey previously said.
More than 750 HHS employees implored Kennedy – a longtime critic of vaccines, including the Covid-19 vaccine – to stop spreading false information about vaccines and denigrating public health workers in a letter last week.
The letter tied the deadly August shooting to political attacks on health agencies.
“The attack came amid growing mistrust in public institutions, driven by politicized rhetoric that has turned public health professionals from trusted experts into targets of villainization – and now, violence,” wrote the staffers, who emphasized they signed the letter “in our own personal capacities.”
Some signed anonymously “out of fear of retaliation and personal safety.”
911 audio released
The shooter who attacked the CDC stole five weapons from his father’s safe, including a long gun, which was used for most of the shots, according to state investigators.
White, wearing what appeared to be a surgical mask and armed with two handguns, a rifle, a shotgun and two backpacks filled with ammo, began shooting at the CDC campus and triggered a lockdown at the agency as well as nearby Emory University. Almost 100 children at a daycare on the campus were locked down, too.
One unidentified witness described seeing the gunman shoot at a police officer on a 911 call, according to audio released this week by the Atlanta Police Department.
“He’s still shooting,” the caller said. “He’s shooting at the officer.”
The sound of gunfire is audible during the call.
“Officer’s hit, officer’s down,” the caller said.
David Rose, a DeKalb County Police officer who arrived during the attack, was fatally shot. He left behind a pregnant wife and two children.
No one at the CDC was injured in the shooting.
White had no known criminal history. He was found dead on the second floor of the CVS store, directly across from the CDC’s main entrance.
Aliki Pappas Weakland, who works at the CDC, recalled in a social media post earlier this month the terror she felt during the attack.
“I dropped to the floor when the shooting started. The fear that gripped me as the gunfire continued in a steady stream for an endless 15 minutes,” she wrote after the attack. “My knees are chafed and hurting from crawling on the floor with my colleagues as we scrambled to seek shelter.”
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CNN’s Meg Tirrell, Chris Youd, Brenda Goodman, Ryan Young, Jason Morris, Dakin Andone, Dalia Faheid, and Sarah Dewberry contributed to this report.
