A man who opened fire at the headquarters of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) apparently wanted to send a message against the COVID vaccines, according to authorities in the United States.
The update on Tuesday came just days after Patrick Joseph White, 30, attacked the government health facility in Atlanta, Georgia, on August 8.
Georgia Bureau of Investigation Director Chris Hosey said that documents found at White’s home “expressed the shooter’s discontent with the COVID-19 vaccinations” and that he wanted to make “the public aware of his discontent with the vaccine”.
Hosey added that White had recently expressed thoughts of suicide, with a neighbour telling local media he had claimed his depression was connected to the vaccine.
According to investigators, White died by a self-inflicted gunshot wound on the day of the attack. He fired more than 180 shots with a long gun, fatally shooting a police officer at the scene.
Since the shooting, critics have slammed President Donald Trump and his allies for creating an environment that fuels vaccine scepticism and misinformation.
“This tragedy was not random and it compounds months of mistreatment, neglect, and vilification that CDC staff have endured,” a union representing CDC employees, AFGE Local 2883, said in a statement on Monday.
It called on the administration to take a “clear and unequivocal stance in condemning vaccine disinformation”.
“Their leadership is critical in reinforcing public trust and ensuring that accurate, science-based information prevails,” the union said.
A track record of misinformation
Trump was in the final full year of his first term in 2020, when COVID-19 started to spread in the US. More than 1.2 million Americans died as a result of the pandemic.
But a study from Cornell University in 2021 found that nearly 38 percent of the “misinformation conversation” surrounding COVID-19 involved Trump.
At the time, one of the study’s authors told The New York Times that the president was the “single largest driver of misinformation” about COVID-19.
Trump repeatedly promoted unproven treatments like hydroxychloroquine as alternatives to vaccination during the pandemic. He also downplayed the pandemic’s risks, saying in February 2020: “I think it’s going to work out fine.”
Since January, in the opening months of his second term, critics have accused Trump of continuing to sow doubt in vaccination and medical research.
They point to his nomination of Robert F Kennedy Jr, a prominent vaccine sceptic, as leader of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), which oversees the CDC.
Recently, Kennedy cancelled hundreds of millions of dollars in funding for research into mRNA vaccines, a medical breakthrough credited with helping to end the COVID pandemic.
Experts say the funding cut will hamper the development of an emerging technology that could be used to combat other pathogens.
But Kennedy suggested the vaccines “fail to protect effectively against upper respiratory infections like COVID and flu”, a claim not supported by research.
‘A climate of hostility’
On Monday, Kennedy visited the CDC in Atlanta as well as the DeKalb County Police Department.
He later met privately the wife of the police officer killed in the attack, 33-year-old David Rose.
“No one should face violence while working to protect the health of others,” Kennedy said in a statement Saturday, adding that federal health officials are “actively supporting CDC staff”.
Investigators said they had recovered five firearms related to the attack, with more than 500 shell casings recovered from the crime scene.
The shooting broke about 150 windows across the CDC campus, with bullets piercing “blast-resistant” windows as workers remained pinned inside.
Fired But Fighting, a group of laid-off CDC employees, said Kennedy was responsible for villainising the CDC’s workforce through “his continuous lies about science and vaccine safety, which have fueled a climate of hostility and mistrust”.
“We don’t need thoughts and prayers,” the group wrote on its website. “We need an administration that does not villainize federal workers who are just trying to do their job. We need a Health and Human Services Secretary who does not promote misinformation about science and vaccines.”
