Staff at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention headquarters in Atlanta are reeling from a deadly shooting that unfolded Friday evening.
The shooting left one local police officer dead, at least four agency buildings riddled with bullet holes, and terrified staffers feeling like "sitting ducks." Fortunately, no CDC staff or civilians were injured. But, it quickly drew a spotlight to US health secretary and zealous anti-vaccine advocate Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who critics accused of fueling the violence with his menacing and reckless anti-vaccine rhetoric.
Kennedy publicly responded to the shooting on social media at about 11 am Eastern Time on Saturday, roughly 18 hours after the event. Former US Surgeon General Jerome Adams subsequently slammed Kennedy's delayed response as "tepid" in a critical essay published in Stat. The news outlet separately pointed out that Kennedy had posted on his personal social media account about 30 minutes prior to his response to the shooting, in which he shared pictures of a fishing trip.
“Very unsettled”
While an official motive for the shooting has not been released, media reporting so far points to anti-vaccine disinformation playing a role. The suspected shooter was identified as Patrick Joseph White, a 30-year-old who lived with his parents in Kennesaw, Georgia, about 30 miles northeast of Atlanta. White was fatally shot during the attack, but it remains unclear if he died from a self-inflicted wound or was shot by law enforcement.
Over the weekend, CDC officials told staff that the shooting was targeted at the CDC. And an unnamed law enforcement official told the Associated Press that White blamed the COVID-19 vaccine for making him depressed and suicidal.
Reporting from The Atlantic-Journal Constitution supported that reporting, talking with White's neighbor, who said White thought he had been injured by a COVID-19 vaccine. While COVID-19 vaccines can cause some cases of severe side effects, those cases are extremely rare, and the shots have otherwise saved millions of lives during the height of the pandemic.
"He was very unsettled and he very deeply believed that vaccines hurt him and were hurting other people," Nancy Hoalst, who lives directly across the street from White’s family, told the AJC. "He emphatically believed that."
Hoalst said that, in recent months, White had begun speaking increasingly about his distrust of COVID-19 vaccines and would work it into casual conversations about entirely unrelated topics.
Disinformation
One can draw a straight line from White's alleged fears to Kennedy's past comments. Kennedy is one of the most prolific spreaders of anti-vaccine misinformation and disinformation in the US and has spent years sowing doubt and fear about lifesaving immunizations. During the pandemic, he only ramped up his dangerous rhetoric. As The New York Times noted, in 2021, Kennedy falsely called the COVID-19 shots the "deadliest vaccine ever made." He also called the CDC a "cesspool of corruption."
On Sunday, CNN reported that the CDC held a video conference with approximately 800 staff members to discuss the traumatic event and allow them to ask questions. Staff said they felt like "sitting ducks" as bullets whizzed just over their cubicle walls and they dove for the floor.
Stat also got access to the call and reported that another employee asked newly confirmed CDC Director Susan Monarez if she had been in touch with Kennedy directly about the shooting.
“Do you expect Secretary Kennedy to make a statement about this, and are you able to speak to the misinformation—the disinformation—that caused this issue, and what your plan forward is to ensure this doesn’t happen again?” the employee asked.
Monarez did not directly answer the question, saying only that she had been in touch with Kennedy's office. "It's a good question. We've been in constant communication with the Office of the Secretary, and more will be coming," Monarez said.
“Deeply disturbing”
The officer killed in the attack was identified as 33-year-old David Rose of the DeKalb County Police Department, who had been on the job for nearly a year. He was seriously injured by the shooter and later died at the hospital. Rose was a father of two with a third on the way.
In addition to the CDC staff threatened in the shooting, the CDC's campus also has a daycare, which was caring for 92 children at the time, CNN reported.
A union representing CDC staff released a statement saying in part:
This tragedy was not random and it compounds months of mistreatment, neglect, and vilification that CDC staff have endured. The deliberate targeting of CDC through this violent act is deeply disturbing, completely unacceptable, and an attack on every public servant. Early reports indicate the gunman was motivated by vaccine disinformation, which continues to pose a dangerous threat to public health and safety.
Staff have reportedly been told they may work remotely on Monday.
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