At first, the crowd that gathered Thursday afternoon across the street from the sprawling Clifton Road campus of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention had the feel of a reunion. Retirees hugged former colleagues, fired workers returned, even some current employees melded in among them—although the announcement on a loud speaker warning “If you’re an employee and have your badge on, please take it off!” made it crystal clear that for all the conviviality, this event had more serious undertones.
Hundreds of CDC supporters stretched along the sidewalk from the entry doors of the CVS at Emory Point, the very spot where 20 days earlier a shooter who believed he had been harmed by the COVID-19 vaccine released a barrage of gunfire. He managed to shatter 150 bullet-resistant windows on the CDC campus and traumatize public health workers inside, but this crowd was now worried about a very different threat: the dismantling of the agency as they know it.
In the past seven months, about a quarter of the CDC workforce has been fired or RIF’ed (reduction in force). The Trump administration terminated 16 CDC grants for public health in Georgia, making it one of the states most affected by the $11 billion total in cuts, according to an analysis by KFF Health News. In June, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. removed all 17 members of CDC’s vaccine advisory panel and named replacements that included some people known for their anti-vaccine views. CDC director Susan Monarez was fired barely a month after being confirmed by the U.S. Senate; she refused to conform to Kennedy’s agenda to restrict access to some vaccines. Three other top CDC officials also quickly resigned in response to Kennedy’s anti-vaccine policies.
That’s the big picture, but through a hyperlocal lens, the changes at CDC will reverberate throughout metro Atlanta. “We’re very much a part of the neighborhoods and the communities of the state, and we’re one of the biggest employers in the state, but [we’re] also protecting Georgians, protecting Americans,” says Anne Schuchat, who was CDC’s principal deputy director when she retired in 2021…