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HHS staffers knock RFK Jr. aft CDC shooting
Less than 2 weeks aft a gunman opened fire astatine CDC headquarters successful Atlanta, the bureau is facing renewed turmoil aft leaders announced a caller sheet to reappraisal the information and effectiveness of COVID-19 mRNA vaccines. At the aforesaid time, unit are reporting harassment successful the aftermath of the onslaught and absorbing the interaction of much than 600 occupation cuts that person dismantled full nationalist wellness programs.
This week, officials confirmed that the fishy — who fired hundreds of rounds astatine the CDC's main field connected Aug. 8, sidesplitting a constabulary serviceman — had attempted to participate the CDC visitors halfway 2 days prior, successful what investigators judge was reconnaissance.
The shooting came conscionable days aft Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. revoked national funding for mRNA vaccine research — a determination celebrated by anti-vaccine groups. Investigators person said the suspect was fixated connected distrust of COVID vaccines.
In the days since, employees accidental they person been targeted with harassing telephone calls. Callers person asked, "Are you resilient?" earlier playing the dependable of gunfire. The taunts, drawn from the agency's ain post-shooting messaging, person near unit shaken.
Against this backdrop, the CDC announced a caller sheet chaired by MIT prof Retsef Levi to analyse concerns raised by critics of COVID mRNA vaccines. Restef himself has been outspoken successful his disapproval of the vaccines. Leadership framed it arsenic an effort to antagonistic misinformation, but galore employees presumption it arsenic a concession to disinformation narratives.
The panel's instauration has deepened unease wrong an instauration already nether strain.
In a missive sent aft the attack, unit urged Kennedy to halt spreading inaccurate wellness information, affirm the CDC's technological integrity and warrant workforce safety.
On Thursday, much than 600 CDC unit were officially fto go, portion of a question of reductions successful unit approved by a national justice earlier this month. Entire branches successful the Division of Global HIV and Tuberculosis were eliminated, including teams that worked connected preventing mother-to-child HIV transmission. Maternal and kid wellness services, oral wellness programs, and the CDC's long-running Violence Against Children and Youth Surveys (VACS) were besides cut.
The VACS program, astir 2 decades old, has provided countries with captious information to measurement the prevalence of unit against children and to plan interventions successful response. "The information we collected was catalytic," 1 researcher said. "Overnight, that enactment is gone."
The layoffs extended into wounded prevention — a bitter irony, fixed that the bureau was conscionable targeted successful a wide shooting. Staff who studied firearm-related deaths, concussions successful young athletes, and autumn prevention successful older adults were among those dismissed.
"Injuries are a starring origin of death," said a seasoned idiosyncratic whose portion was eliminated. "Preventing them volition effect successful less deaths. It's that simple. But our full squad was wiped distant with a azygous letter."
Other programs eliminated had decades of history. Global HIV prevention and attraction efforts day backmost to the 1990s, with CDC method assistance shaping attraction for millions worldwide. Oral wellness and maternal-child wellness branches person likewise been longstanding pillars of home prevention work. Their abrupt closure, unit say, erases systems that took generations to build.
Employees accidental the process itself has been isolating. "It's been alienating and lonely," 1 longtime idiosyncratic said. "People we'd worked with for decades became acrophobic to adjacent speech to us, and we were conscionable chopped off." Another added: "We're not conscionable lazy national bureaucrats. We've poured our hearts and souls into this work, showing up time aft time to support radical safe."
For galore employees, the connection is stark: the CDC is being asked to analyse its ain technological foundations, adjacent arsenic the misinformation driving hostility against the bureau goes unchecked.
Dr. Céline Gounder, an internist, epidemiologist and infectious illness specialist, is simply a CBS News aesculapian contributor arsenic good arsenic elder chap and editor-at-large for nationalist wellness astatine KFF Health News.
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