CDC employee describes fear, frustration after Atlanta campus shooting tied to COVID vaccine anger

By Gilat Melamed

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    ATLANTA, Georgia (WXIA) — A longtime Centers for Disease Control and Prevention employee is speaking out after the Aug. 8 CDC campus shooting in Atlanta, saying the experience left her shaken and frustrated by the lack of national attention and communication during the emergency.

Monday evening was the first time the CDC epidemiologist returned to the agency’s property since the shooting. She asked not to be named due to concerns about her job.

“Coming here, and being here, and just walking around this corner definitely has had a stronger impact on me than I thought it would,” she said. “I could feel my heart starting to—my heart rate starting to increase—as I walked around here.”

The 20-year CDC employee said she wants the public to hear what she experienced firsthand, in hopes of sparking more conversation about stopping vaccine misinformation and preventing violence against public health workers.

She said she was finishing up her work day when she heard a high-pitched banging sound, but didn’t know what it was. From her office, she couldn’t see anything.

“The thought of gunshots did not come to me immediately,” she said.

Then the sound changed.

“What had been just the high-pitched bang, bang, bang changed. What we could hear at that point was the bullets hitting our building. We heard glass breaking.”

She and several coworkers hid in an office, pushing a bookcase against the door. They didn’t know whether the shooter was inside the building.

“Literally and figuratively in the dark,” she said.

CDC shooting linked to anger over COVID-19 vaccine

The Georgia Bureau of Investigation (GBI) said the shooter left behind documents expressing anger about the COVID-19 vaccine.

“That was a lot to take in. Most people at the CDC worked on the COVID response. I worked on the COVID response for many years,” she said. “COVID-19 vaccinations are one of the greatest public health achievements in recent times.”

Some of her colleagues have since returned to work, but she was instructed to stay home. Her building remains closed due to bullet damage.

“I really enjoy what I do. That’s why I’ve been here so long,” she said. “I think I’ll be ready to go back when the time comes—but I want to go back to a safer workplace.”

Calls for faster emergency alerts and training

She said there were major delays in communication during the incident. While some CDC employees received an active shooter alert around 5:15 p.m., she said she did not get a lockdown notification until nearly 9 p.m., hours after the situation began.

Now, she’s calling for changes to how emergencies are handled at federal facilities, including:

Faster, clearer alerts Use of intercoms for lockdown instructions Regular active shooter drills

“We do so much emergency preparedness work at CDC. I think it’s a real gap that this wasn’t something most of us felt like we were prepared for,” she said.

‘Why hasn’t the president said anything?’

She also questioned the lack of national attention on the shooting.

“A federal facility and government workers—and the government—was attacked on August 8. And the President hasn’t made a statement whatsoever related to this,” she said.

The CDC employee hopes that by sharing her story, she can bring attention to what happened and push for better protection for public health workers—especially those who helped lead the COVID-19 response.

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