The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Susan Monarez warned staffers about the dangers of misinformation during an agencywide meeting, the first since last week’s shooting at CDC’s headquarters in Atlanta that left one police officer dead, according to a transcript of her remarks obtained by NBC News.
Monarez conducted Tuesday’s staff meeting virtually, joined by Jim O’Neill, the deputy secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, and Jeff Williams, director of the CDC’s Office of Safety, Security and Asset Management, in an effort to reassure the people who work at the Atlanta campus about their safety. She noted that the agency has taken steps to bolster security and expand mental health sources for employees.
“Public health should never be under attack,” Monarez said, echoing an earlier social media post from Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
“We know that misinformation can be dangerous,” Monarez told staffers. “Not only to health, but to those that trust us and those we want to trust. We need to rebuild the trust together.”
Monarez said the agency can rebuild that trust with “rational, evidence-based discourse” communicated with ”compassion and understanding.”
The suspected shooter, Patrick White, 30, fired close to 200 rounds that struck six buildings at the CDC’s campus, law enforcement officials said at a separate press conference Tuesday. A total of five firearms, including rifles and a shotgun, were recovered at the scene.
On Tuesday’s call, Williams, the head of CDC’s security, said the campus buildings “sustained excessive damage,” adding that it will take time for cleanup and repairs.
Nearly 100 children at the childcare center located within CDC’s campus were reunited with their parents Friday night after the shooting.
Because CDC employees have been working remotely since the attack, Monarez expressed regret that they couldn’t meet in person. She said that as staffers return to campus in the coming weeks, it will be “different” and “unsettling, in many ways, for some time to come.”
White’s motive remains under investigation, although officials said they found documents at his home in Kennesaw, Georgia, expressing his discontent with the Covid vaccines.
One police officer, David Rose, was killed while responding to the gunfire.
In the wake of the attack on the CDC, staffers have been voicing frustration over Kennedy’s past vaccine comments, which they said has fueled growing hostility toward public health officials.
When asked if Kennedy planned to address vaccine misinformation, Andrew Nixon, a spokesperson for the Department of Health and Human Services, which oversees the CDC, said Monarez and CDC leadership “remain focused on supporting staff during an extraordinarily difficult time as evidenced by their continued direct engagement.”
“This is a time to stand in solidarity with our public health workforce and we hope the media will respect the moment rather than exploiting a tragedy and further exacerbating an already harrowing experience by the dedicated CDC staff,” Nixon said in the statement to NBC News.
”The irony is her boss is the biggest spreader of misinformation,” said Dr. Paul Offit, the director of the Vaccine Education Center at Children’s Hospital of Pennsylvania, referring to Kennedy.
Offit, also vaccine advisor for the FDA, said the staff at CDC aren’t responsible for the misinformation.
“These people, they’re hardworking public health folks, who care deeply about getting it right,” he said.
In a statement released Tuesday, Joseph Kanter, the CEO of The Association of State and Territorial Health Officials, a group that represents state public health agencies, said “in this time of heated rhetoric and polarization, we implore everyone to help dampen inflammatory slander undeservingly aimed at public health professionals.”
On Monday, Kennedy visited CDC’s headquarters, where security led him through campus, pointing out shattered windows across multiple buildings, according to statement released by HHS.
Later, Kennedy met with the widow of the killed police officer.
The HHS statement also said the agency “continues to support CDC personnel and their families.” Over the weekend, Kennedy sent an email to staff, saying the agency is “standing together” in the wake of the shooting.
Kennedy has been active in opposing use of the Covid vaccines. He filed a citizens’ petition in 2021 requesting that the Food and Drug Administration revoke the authorization of the Covid vaccines. The same year, he described the Covid shot as the “deadliest vaccine ever made.”
He has also taken steps the limit use of the updated Covid vaccines for the fall, restricting its use to older adults and those with underlying health conditions.
Last week, Kennedy terminated nearly two dozen contracts focused on developing mRNA vaccines — the same technology used to develop Pfizer’s and Moderna’s Covid shots.
Kennedy hasn’t yet spoken publicly about vaccine misinformation that may have contributed to the shooting.
During the Tuesday meeting, the head of CDC security tried to ease worries about returning to the agency’s campus.
“All indications are that this was an isolated event involving one individual,” Williams said.
