According to a transcript of her comments that NBC News was able to obtain, Susan Monarez, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, cautioned employees about the perils of false information during an agency-wide meeting. This was the first since the shooting at the CDC headquarters in Atlanta last week that claimed the life of one police officer.
In an attempt to reassure the employees at the Atlanta campus about their safety, Monarez held a virtual staff meeting on Tuesday with the participation of Jeff Williams, director of the CDC’s Office of Safety, Security, and Asset Management, and Jim O. Neill, deputy secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services. She said the agency had taken action to provide employee access to mental health resources and strengthen security.
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Monarez reiterated a previous social media statement by Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. that public health should never be attacked.
We are aware that false information might be harmful, Monarez informed the employees. Not just to health, but also to those we want to trust and those who trust us. Together, we must restore the trust.
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According to Monarez, the organization can restore that trust by using logical, fact-based arguments that are conveyed with empathy and understanding.
At a separate press conference on Tuesday, law enforcement officials stated that the suspected shooter, Patrick White, 30, fired about 200 rounds that hit six buildings on the CDC site. Five firearms, including a shotgun and rifles, were found at the scene.
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Williams, the CDC’s security chief, stated on Tuesday’s conference that the campus buildings had received significant damage and that cleanup and repairs would require time.
Following the tragedy, about 100 kids at the daycare center on the CDC site were reunited with their parents on Friday evening.
Monarez apologized that they were unable to meet in person since CDC staff have been working remotely since the incident. It will be odd and disturbing in many ways for a while to come, she added, as staff members return to school in the upcoming weeks.
Although authorities say they discovered documents at White’s Kennesaw, Georgia, home expressing his dissatisfaction with the Covid vaccinations, his motivation is still being investigated.
While responding to the gunfire, one police officer, David Rose, was killed.
Staff members have been complaining about Kennedy’s previous remarks against vaccines in the wake of the CDC attack, claiming that they have increased animosity toward public health experts.
Andrew Nixon, a spokesman for the Department of Health and Human Services, which is in charge of CDC, responded to a question about Kennedy’s plans to address vaccine misinformation by saying that Monarez and CDC leadership are still committed to helping staff through a very trying time, as shown by their ongoing direct involvement.
Nixon said NBC News, “This is a time to stand in solidarity with our public health workforce and we hope the media will respect the moment rather than exploit a tragedy and further exacerbate an already harrowing experience by the dedicated CDC staff.”
According to Dr. Paul Offit, director of the Vaccine Education Center at Children’s Hospital of Pennsylvania, Kennedy’s boss is the top disseminator of false information, which is ironic.
Offit, who is also an FDA vaccine advisor, stated that the CDC employees are not to blame for the false information.
According to him, these individuals are dedicated public health professionals who genuinely care about doing it well.
“In this time of heated rhetoric and polarization, we implore everyone to help dampen inflammatory slander undeservingly aimed at public health professionals,” said Joseph Kanter, CEO of The Association of State and Territorial Health Officials, a group that represents state public health agencies, in a statement released Tuesday.
Kennedy visited the CDC headquarters on Monday, and according to a statement issued by HHS, security escorted him around the property, pointing out broken windows in several buildings.
Kennedy later had a meeting with the deceased police officer’s widow.
Additionally, the agency “continues to support CDC personnel and their families,” according to the HHS statement. Kennedy informed employees via email over the weekend that the agency is united in the wake of the shooting.
Kennedy has actively opposed the Covid vaccine’s usage. In 2021, he submitted a citizen petition asking the FDA to cancel the Covid vaccines’ approval. He called the Covid vaccination the deadliest vaccine ever created that same year.
Additionally, he has limited the use of the revised Covid vaccines for the fall to older adults and people with preexisting medical issues.
Kennedy ended around two dozen contracts last week that were centered on creating mRNA vaccines, which employ the same technology as Pfizer’s and Moderna’s COVID vaccines.
Kennedy has not yet addressed the potential role of vaccine disinformation in the massacre.
The CDC security chief attempted to allay concerns about going back to the agency’s premises during the Tuesday meeting.
According to Williams, all signs point to this being a singular incident involving a single person.
