{"id":789,"date":"2026-08-13T04:14:30","date_gmt":"2026-08-13T04:14:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/marketrelocationreport.com\/?p=789"},"modified":"2026-08-13T04:14:30","modified_gmt":"2026-08-13T04:14:30","slug":"were-still-in-hell-a-year-later-cdc-employees-remain-shaken-by-headquarters-shooting-and-angry-at-agency-leaders-response","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/marketrelocationreport.com\/?p=789","title":{"rendered":"\u2018We\u2019re still in hell\u2019: A year later, CDC employees remain shaken by headquarters shooting \u2014 and angry at agency leaders\u2019 response"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

About a year ago, a gunman opposed to the COVID-19 vaccine opened fire on the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention\u2019s headquarters in Atlanta, killing a responding police officer before committing suicide. There\u2019s still damage from the attack that hasn\u2019t been repaired, according to Yolanda Jacobs, the president of the union local for CDC HQ employees.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Read more Space Command says it needs to \u2018shoot, move and communicate\u2019 in orbit<\/a><\/p>\n

Between the shooting, staff cuts and leadership turnover, staffers say they are being pushed to the brink. While some are cautiously optimistic about the agency\u2019s new director, they also feel the administration is hostile toward the CDC workforce, pointing to rhetoric from senior leaders during events associated with the one-year anniversary of the attack.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThe last 18 months have been hell for a lot of CDC employees,\u201d Jacobs said during a virtual press conference on Aug. 7. \u201cYou know how they say \u2018taking you to hell and back,\u2019 we haven\u2019t gotten back \u2014\u00a0we\u2019re still in hell.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

As part of commemorations on Aug. 7, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. visited CDC\u2019s headquarters where he met with the family of slain police officer David Rose and participated in a fireside chat with agency employees.\u00a0<\/p>\n

According to Jacobs, who did not attend the chat, employees described the town hall as more \u201cbadgering and beating down the employees versus we\u2019re here and we\u2019re going to lend support.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI do think that it stepped away from being something beautiful \u2014 commemorating the death of someone who sacrificed his life for us \u2014\u00a0and it turned into more of a political fest,\u201d she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Another CDC staffer, who preferred to be unnamed due to fears of retaliation, said that employees feel senior officials \u2014 such as Kennedy and National Institutes of Health Director Jay Bhattacharya, who has been leading the CDC until the new head is sworn in \u2014 are trying to blame the workforce for last year\u2019s shooting.<\/p>\n

\u201cA theme that Bhattacharya always comes back to when he’s talking to us is that basically \u2018We need to listen, and we don’t respect people and the whole reason nobody believes in public health \u2014\u00a0or trusts public health \u2014\u00a0is because of us not listening to people,\u2019\u201d she said. \u201cIt’s pretty obvious that they’re victim blaming and really telling us it’s our fault that we got shot up.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

In addition, a CDC employee who attended the fireside chat shared a photo with Government Executive <\/em>of a poster featuring Bhattacharya as a wrestler to thank him for his leadership at the agency.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Read more How Congress is reshaping the administration\u2019s FY27 defense budget<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cJust looking at the photo, I see leadership that is totally out of touch with the needs of its employees that does not really understand the magnitude of all that is happening and continues to happen,\u201d Jacobs said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

A group for CDC alumni hosted a commemorative event on Aug. 8 that was unaffiliated with the agency.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThey obviously understood how the first anniversary was going to be really hard for us, and so they put together that service for us and having it off campus was really nice,\u201d the unnamed employee said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In response to a request for comment, an HHS spokesperson said that: \u201cSecretary Kennedy unequivocally condemns last year’s horrific attack and remains fully committed to the safety and well-being of every CDC employee. Any claim that the administration does not take this tragedy or its lasting impact on the CDC workforce seriously is simply false.\u201d<\/p>\n

As the Trump administration laid off and otherwise downsized the civil service, CDC\u2019s workforce shrunk by nearly 30% since 2024. And the agency\u2019s former director, Susan Monarez, was fired after only about a month in the position for, she said, refusing to pre-accept vaccine decisions and fire career employees who work on vaccine policy.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Last week, the Senate confirmed a new CDC director, Erica Schwartz, the former deputy surgeon general. At the time of her approval, Jacobs said in a statement that the new leader \u201chas an opportunity to turn the tide.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cAll of us are more than anxious and willing to work with our leadership to get the agency back on solid footing\u2026We just need to know that leadership feels the same way,\u201d she added during the virtual press conference. \u201cUntil that happens, we\u2019re going to continue to see employees having mental breakdowns \u2014 and we\u2019re seeing a whole lot of that \u2014 and we\u2019re going to see a lot of people taking their skills elsewhere where they feel that they\u2019re more valued. And in the end, can we blame them for that?\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Read more Federal agencies are looking beyond the usual sources for new ideas<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The agency is also contending with deep workforce cuts and leadership changes as a new director prepares to take over.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":788,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-789","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-workforce"],"yoast_head":"\n\u2018We\u2019re still in hell\u2019: A year later, CDC employees remain shaken by headquarters shooting \u2014 and angry at agency leaders\u2019 response - Market Relocation Report<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/marketrelocationreport.com\/?p=789\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"\u2018We\u2019re still in hell\u2019: A year later, CDC employees remain shaken by headquarters shooting \u2014 and angry at agency leaders\u2019 response - 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