Hundreds of current and former Department of Health and Human Services employees have signed a public letter to Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. asking him to stop spreading “false and misleading” health information and increase security in response to the shooting at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention headquarters earlier this month.
It’s the latest pushback from federal public health workers against the changes wrought by Kennedy’s “Make America Healthy Again” movement and a sign of how strongly the Aug. 8 shooting at the CDC rattled employees.
“The attack came amid growing mistrust in public institutions, driven by politicized rhetoric that has turned public health professionals from trusted experts into targets of villainization — and now, violence,” the letter reads. It calls for HHS to institute emergency procedures and alerts to protect against future attacks and to remove materials online that explicitly call out certain workers, including “DEI watchlists.”
Authorities said the shooter had written about believing a COVID-19 vaccine had caused his depression. One police officer, David Rose, was killed in the attack.
A CDC employee told NOTUS this week that they feel “sheer anger” over the lack of response from HHS officials to the shooting.
Kennedy visited the CDC campus in Atlanta days after the attack, along with the CDC’s director, Susan Monarez. But in an interview with Scripps News last week, he defended his decision to pull funding for mRNA vaccine research, saying that “public health agencies have not been honest.”
CDC workers returning to the office this week found that cleanup of damage caused by the shooting was still ongoing. Morale was notably low, the CDC employee told NOTUS.
“During my 15 years working at CDC, there have been major ice storms and hurricanes and even the pandemic, and none of those things deterred many CDC employees from getting on campus or doing what they had to do to keep operations moving,” they said. “Only now, there’s a much different feel resonating. As if we have just been beat down so much that we’ve lost motivation to go above and beyond for our work and for our country.”
In response to questions about the letter, a spokesperson said via email that “Secretary Kennedy is standing firmly with CDC employees—both on the ground and across every center—ensuring their safety and well-being remain a top priority.”
“For the first time in its 70-year history, the mission of HHS is truly resonating with the American people—driven by President Trump and Secretary Kennedy’s bold commitment to Make America Healthy Again,” they continued. “Any attempt to conflate widely supported public health reforms with the violence of a suicidal mass shooter is an attempt to politicize a tragedy.”
Wednesday’s letter also cited several decisions of Kennedy’s that it says were “dismantling America’s public health infrastructure and endangering the nation’s health,” including cancelling $500 million in mRNA vaccine development contracts and disbanding the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices. Kennedy later announced that he would be reconstituting it with members of his own choosing, some of whom have questioned vaccines.
“These dangerous and deceitful statements and actions have contributed to the harassment and violence experienced by CDC staff,” the letter reads.
The letter asks for the secretary to commit to changes by Sept. 2.