CDC workers question safety after fatal shooting

Politico

2 days ago

With help from Erin Schumaker
Driving the Day
STAFFERS TRAUMATIZED — Centers for Disease Control and Prevention employees are afraid to return to work after Friday's deadly shooting at the agency's Atlanta headquarters, three agency staffers said.
'Even the ones who weren't in lockdown for seven hours and are ridiculously traumatized … even everybody else, I'm getting questions about 'Are our windows bulletproof? And what about the areas without cell reception?'' one of the staffers said. They were granted anonymity for fear of retribution.
Some employees say HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s spread of vaccine misinformation might have villainized the CDC in the eyes of some, Sophie reports. Some media outlets have reported that the suspected shooter, 30-year-old Patrick White, believed that the Covid-19 vaccine made him sick. White died at the scene, authorities said.
'I think most of us would very much like the next message we hear from him to begin with 'I hereby resign,'' a fourth staffer told POLITICO in a text. 'The secretary is being widely (and accurately) blamed for spreading disinformation about vaccines that helped poison the mind of a disturbed individual.'
No CDC employees were injured. DeKalb County Police Officer David Rose was shot and killed while responding to the incident.
Key context: The shooting comes amid an already tumultuous time for CDC staff. In April, the administration sent termination notices to hundreds of CDC employees, and the Trump administration has proposed slashing the agency's budget by roughly half.
HHS spokesperson Andrew Nixon said in a statement that Kennedy 'unequivocally condemned the horrific attack and remains fully committed to ensuring the safety and well-being of CDC employees.'
The latest: Kennedy visited the agency's headquarters Monday to survey the damage, HHS said. He was joined by newly confirmed CDC Director Susan Monarez.
One of the staffers said employees are closely watching how Monarez, who was sworn in late last month, will speak to staff about the shooting at an agencywide meeting on Tuesday.
'I hope that she is using her voice, internally and frankly externally, as our brand new leader,' the staffer said.
What's next: The CDC has extended telework for a week to everyone who works from CDC campuses in Atlanta, the first staffer said. It's still unclear when employees will be expected to return to the agency's Edward R. Roybal campus, which sustained extensive damage.
Employees at other campuses can return to work today or continue to work remotely for the rest of the week if they choose to, a second staffer based in a campus outside Atlanta confirmed to POLITICO.
'The campus is not going to feel ready for us to come back to, and we want to make sure that it feels ready and feels safe for us to get back there at some point,' said Christa Capozzola, the agency's acting chief operating officer, on a call with agency staff Saturday. POLITICO obtained a partial recording of the call.
The agency is conducting a 'full security assessment,' Monarez said on the call.
WELCOME TO TUESDAY PULSE. Actress Cheryl Hines, the wife of HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., is releasing a new memoir, titled 'Unscripted.' Send your tips, scoops and feedback to [e-mail] and [e-mail], and follow along @kelhoops and @sophie_gardnerj.
Make America Healthy Again
MAHA REPORT HEADS TO TRUMP — Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s long-awaited strategy for 'making children healthy again' is expected to be delivered to President Donald Trump today but not yet made available to the public, POLITICO's David Lim, Marcia Brown and Megan Messerly report.
Today is the Make America Healthy Again Commission's deadline — as required through executive order — to present the report to Trump. But White House spokesperson Kush Desai said that the group will take more time to coordinate officials' schedules to release the report to the public.
Why it matters: The upcoming MAHA policy recommendations are expected to suggest a restructuring of the government's response to childhood chronic diseases and will have wide-ranging implications for food, farm and health policy.
Background: Industry groups and Kennedy devotees have lobbied heavily to affect what's in the closely watched document and had expected its public release would coincide with the executive order's deadline for sending the strategy to Trump, as was the case with an earlier report assessing the health risks facing children in May.
The White House has been hosting preview meetings with stakeholders ahead of the August report's release, according to a person familiar with the timing who was granted anonymity to discuss the conversations.
Eye on Insurers
LONG-TERM SERVICES — Fewer Medicare Advantage beneficiaries were enrolled in plans offering long-term support services in 2025 than in 2019, according to a new study published in JAMA Network Open.
The availability of the long-term support benefits, which include care in nursing homes and assisted-living facilities, within the privately run alternative to Medicare has largely remained unchanged over that period, according to the study. But the share of Medicare Advantage beneficiaries enrolled in plans with LTSS benefits has decreased 14 percentage points, report the paper's researchers from Harvard Medical School.
'Taken together, these results suggest that with the increase in MA enrollment over time, access to LTSS within MA has potentially become more limited,' they wrote.
Why it matters: In 2018, more than 18 million people needed long-term services and support, with 56 percent of those people over age 65. But private health insurance doesn't generally cover LTSS, and Medicare's coverage is limited.
Background: Because of a 2018 HHS policy, Medicare Advantage plans began offering long-term supplemental benefits like in-home support services, caregiver support and home-based palliative care. Still, plan offerings within the private program can be scarce, and the level of benefits offered can be limited.
In 2025, the share of Medicare Advantage plans offering any LTSS was 12.3 percent, compared with 12.9 percent in 2019 when the rule went into effect, according to the study.
Key context: The slightly more limited availability of Medicare Advantage plans with LTSS benefits in 2025 could be partly attributed to some plans ceasing to exist, as health insurers in recent years have increasingly exited markets where plans were unprofitable, according to the study. Another factor could be that insurers view offering the benefits as financially impractical because of insufficient federal funding.
At the Agencies
NIH DEPARTURE — The National Institutes of Health official who oversaw grant review and the groups who evaluate NIH grant applications is leaving the agency at the end of the month, Erin reports.
NIH Director Jay Bhattacharya said Noni Byrnes, who directs the agency's Center for Scientific Review, is retiring from federal service after nearly 25 years at the agency. Byrnes had served as the center's director since 2019.
During her time there, Byrnes, an expert in analytical chemistry, implemented frameworks and systems for evaluating quality, integrity and fairness in grant review.
'Most recently, she oversaw the HHS and NIH effort to centralize the peer review of applications and proposals for all the agency's grants, cooperative agreements, and research and development contracts,' Bhattacharya's announcement said.
Byrnes' other efforts included expanding the advisory councils and pushing to diversify the pool of peer reviewers and study sections to include researchers of different races, genders, scientific backgrounds and experience.
'You don't want bureaucrats or government officials making these decisions,' Byrnes told Chemical and Engineering News in 2019, referring to the grant review process.
Why it matters: The NIH's peer review process is in the midst of an overhaul. In March, the NIH said it would centralize what had previously been handled by subject matter experts at individual institutes and centers.
This spring, the NIH moved to remove swaths of outside experts from advisory boards that evaluate agency research.
And last week, President Donald Trump issued an executive order that increases the administration's control over research grants that the government funds.
According to the order, agencies shouldn't fund research that uses race as selection criteria, denies that sex is binary or suggests that sex can be changed, encourages or subsidizes illegal immigration, compromises public safety or promotes anti-American values. The order tasks agency officials with defining those terms.
What's next: The Center for Scientific Review's deputy director, Bruce Reed, will serve as the center's acting director.
WHAT WE'RE READING
The New Yorker's Dhruv Khullar reports on an ultra-rare disease that accelerates aging.
STAT's Casey Ross, Bob Herman, Tara Bannow and Lizzy Lawrence report on the research machine that helps UnitedHealth Group protect its Medicare profits.