Written by Mike Stobbe
NEW YORK (AP) Information circulating within the CDC indicates that the guy who assaulted the agency’s headquarters in Atlanta on Friday fired over 180 shots into the campus, breaking over 150 windows, piercing blast-resistant windows and scattering glass shards into multiple rooms.
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According to staff at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, replacing windows and cleaning up the damage might take weeks or even months.
A police officer was killed late Friday by gunfire from a guy in Georgia who claimed that the COVID-19 vaccine had caused him to become suicidal and despondent. At CDC, nobody was hurt.
According to a law enforcement official who spoke to the AP, the gunman was apprehended by CDC security personnel before heading to a neighboring pharmacy and starting to shoot late Friday afternoon. The official spoke on condition of anonymity and was not permitted to discuss the probe in public. Patrick Joseph White, 30, passed away later, although authorities have not disclosed whether he committed suicide or was murdered by police.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the U.S. Health Secretary, visited the CDC campus on Monday. In a U.S. Department of Health and Human Services statement, CDC security noted damaged windows in several buildings, including the main guard booth.
He was accompanied by CDC Director Susan Monarez and HHS Deputy Secretary Jim O. Neill, the statement said.
Kennedy also spoke with the police chief at the DeKalb County Police Department. Later. He also had a private meeting with David Rose, the widow of the deceased officer.
According to a statement Monarez shared on social media on Friday evening, the attack damaged at least four CDC facilities.
During a CDC leadership meeting over the weekend, the scope of the damage became increasingly apparent. Since they were not allowed to disclose the material, two CDC officials who were informed of the topics covered at the conference provided specifics to The Associated Press under the condition of anonymity. An AP reporter also saw an agency memo that contained details.
The most rounds were fired into Building 21, which is where Monarez’s office is located. Whether her office was hit was not disclosed by CDC officials.
This week, CDC staff were encouraged to work from home.
Kennedy said in a statement on Saturday that top federal health officials were actively assisting CDC staff and that no one should be subjected to violence while trying to protect the health of others.
During his visit on Monday, he did not address the media.
Stephan Monroe, a former CDC official, expressed concern about the attack’s potential long-term effects on young scientists’ desire to work for the government.
Monroe told a reporter on the corner where a poster had been put up in Rose’s honor, “I’m worried that this is going to be a generational hit.”
Before President Donald Trump appointed him to run federal health agencies, Kennedy led a nationwide anti-vaccine campaign. He has also made false and misleading claims on the efficacy and safety of COVID-19 vaccinations and other vaccines.
According to Tim Young, a CDC employee who retired in April, years of misleading rhetoric over vaccines and public health is certain to have a negative impact on people’s mental health and to incite violence.
Health officials should understand the consequences of their statements, according to Dr. Jerome Adams, the U.S. surgeon general during President Donald Trump’s first term, who made this statement on Sunday.
“We must realize that people are paying attention,” Adams said on CBS’s Face the Nation. Making repeatedly refuted claims regarding the safety and effectiveness of vaccines can have unforeseen repercussions.
This report was contributed to by AP reporters Charlotte Kramon and Alanna Durkin Richer.
The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the Science and Educational Media Group of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute provide support to the Associated Press Health and Science Department. All content is entirely the AP’s responsibility.
