CDC Shooting Has Staffers Alarmed, and Union Demanding Changes

The shooting on Friday, August 13, 2025, at the headquarters of the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), in which the gunman killed a police officer before killing himself, after shooting out more than 60 windows in the headquarters building, has created alarm among CDC staff members and more broadly among federal employees in various health agencies.

On Friday evening, CDC Director Susan Monarez wrote on X that “We @CDCgov are heartbroken by today’s attack on our Roybal Campus, which remains on lockdown as authorities investigate the shooting. A courageous local law enforcement officer gave their life, and another was injured, after a gunman opened fire on at least four CDC buildings. DeKalb County police, CDC security, and Emory University responded immediately and decisively, helping to prevent further harm to our staff and community. Our top priority is the safety and well-being of everyone at CDC. We are actively coordinating with federal, state, and local partners to fully investigate the shooter and this tragic crime.

And, according to a number of media outlets, a large group call on Saturday morning involving Monarez and CDC employees, became contentious, with employees questioning her on whether the agency had a plan to address the “misinformation that caused this issue.”

Later, Monarez held a virtual meeting on Tuesday, August 12 with CDC staffers, who are still working remotely because of the attack. NBC News’s Berkeley Lovelace Jr. reported on Tuesday that “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.’” Lovelace wrote, referencing Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., that, “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. Dr. Peter Marks, the FDA’s former top vaccine official, said the job of public health officials is difficult. ‘There’s a lot of nuance to public health communication. Sometimes it’s black and white, but usually, there’s a fair amount of complexity,’” he told Lovelace.

Meanwhile, Lovelace wrote that, “Asked whether 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 a statement.

But, Lovelace wrote, “Referring to Kennedy, Dr. Paul Offit, the director of the Vaccine Education Center at Children’s Hospital of Pennsylvania, said: ‘The irony is her boss is the biggest spreader of misinformation.’ Offit, also vaccine adviser 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.”

And Lovelace quoted Joseph Kanter, the CEO of the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials, a group that represents state public health agencies, as saying in a statement Tuesday that “in this time of heated rhetoric and polarization, we implore everyone to help dampen inflammatory slander undeservingly aimed at public health professionals.” Lovelace noted that, “On Monday, Kennedy visited CDC’s headquarters, where security led him through campus, pointing out shattered windows across multiple buildings, HHS said in a statement. Later, Kennedy met with the widow of the killed police officer.”

Further, Lovelace reported, “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.”

The local NBC affiliate, 11-ALIVE, in its late-night broadcast on Monday, August 11, covered the incident, broadcasting a statement from the union, with a union leader stating that, “On behalf of AFGE Local 2883, condolences to [DeKalb County Police] Officer [David] Rose, he went above and beyond the call of duty for all of us, and for that we’ll always be thankful. We appreciate also the guards at the gate that prevented the shooter from entering the campus in the first place. To Emory staff, CVS employees, Emory Point establishment, we know that this was something really traumatic, and it’s going to take a while for a lot of people to even begin processing it, let alone to finish grieving what has happened.”

The union, AFGE Local 2883, has also released the following statement, which follows below in its entirety.

“Union Demands

We issued a survey to CDC employees and we have multiple demands. We look forward to working with CDC to keep our workforce safe.

•            We demand a seat at the table for re-shaping safety and security at CDC. Labor union representatives must be present and represented in safety taskforces and decision-making at CDC. Emergency alerts, physical safety and security, emergency planning and evacuation procedures all require staff input to correct what went wrong last week. 

•            While it’s been many months of the agency ignoring union-related communication and requests, we are hopeful that this crisis is a clear and urgent realization that we need to work together. The safety of our workforce depends on what we do from here.

•            Workers need additional mental health and trauma recovery support. Our employee assistance program has been experiencing “longer than usual” wait times for months due to the abuse we have already endured. We need substantive, additional resources.

•            Workers need flexibility before returning to the office. Our workforce cannot be expected to sit beside bullet holes, or return to physical campuses that are not secured.

•            Violence prevention experts need to return to their jobs, funding must be released, and these programs need to continue to prevent future violence.

•            Provide additional security measures until safety concerns are fully addressed.

•            We demand that HHS and CDC issue public statements correctly attributing this attack to the same movements that villainize and politicize public health workers.

•            Congress must condemn this attack and the rhetoric that politicizes public health workers. We thank the congresspeople who have already responded, including Senators Ossoff and Warnock and Representative Nikema Williams.

We Urge Congress to Act

•            Hold hearings on threats, harassment, and politicization of the civil service and the role of political rhetoric in fueling them. Call agency heads and political appointees to testify on steps taken to protect staff and maintain a nonpartisan civil service.

•            Pass legislation strengthening protections against harassment, retaliation, and politically motivated attacks. Require agencies to develop and implement workplace safety and anti-harassment protocols when employees face targeted threats.

•            Introduce a congressional resolution condemning political attacks on career federal employees and affirming the importance of an independent, nonpartisan civil service.

•            Request Government Accountability Office (GAO) investigations into politicization and its impact on employee safety and retention.”