Hundreds of current and former HHS employees demanded support and leadership from Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. The signatories accused Kennedy of undermining public health by questioning CDC staff integrity, promoting false claims about COVID vaccines, altering vaccine policy based on ideology, and enabling harassment and violence against CDC employees. Those conditions are cited as contributing factors to the August 8 attack in which a gunman fired more than 500 rounds at the CDC main campus, struck six buildings, and forced employees to barricade and hide. The shooter killed a responding police officer and then himself, prompting calls for greater support for public health workers.
A letter signed by hundreds of current and former HHS employees, addressed to Kennedy and members of Congress, says Kennedy is "complicit in dismantling America's public health infrastructure and endangering the nation's health" by questioning the integrity of the CDC's workforce, making false claims that COVID vaccines are not safe or effective, changing vaccine policy based on ideology rather than science, and contributing to "harassment and violence experienced by the CDC staff."
Authorities have said that the shooting was motivated by the gunman's "discontent" with COVID vaccines, based on written documents found in his home. He thought he had been injured by the vaccine and believed it was harming others, according to interviews with family members by Atlanta News First. The gunman approached CDC main campus on a Friday afternoon, towards the end of the work day.
"This is a major event," said Dr. Fiona Havers, a former CDC official and a signatory on the letter who left the agency in June. "It's critical that the scale of this event is recognized and that people that work in public health, and public health in general, are given much more support than they're being given right now."
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