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Arab News
an hour ago
- Arab News
CDC shooter believed COVID vaccine made him suicidal, his father tells police
ATLANTA: A Georgia man who opened fire on the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention headquarters, shooting dozens of rounds into the sprawling complex and killing a police officer, had blamed the COVID-19 vaccine for making him depressed and suicidal, a law enforcement official told The Associated Press on Saturday. The 30-year-old shooter also tried to get into the CDC's headquarters in Atlanta but was stopped by guards before driving to a pharmacy across the street and opening fire late Friday afternoon, the official said. He was armed with five guns, including at least one long gun, the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to publicly discuss the investigation. DeKalb County Police Officer David Rose was mortally wounded while responding. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., whose skepticism of vaccines has been a cornerstone of his career, voiced support for CDC employees Saturday. But some laid-off CDC employees said Kennedy shares responsibility for the violence and should resign. CDC shooter identified The Georgia Bureau of Investigation named Patrick Joseph White as the shooter, but authorities haven't said whether he was killed by police or killed himself. The suspect's father contacted police and identified his son as the possible shooter, the law enforcement official told AP. The father said his son had been upset over the death of the son's dog, and he had also become fixated on the COVID-19 vaccine, according to the official. The family lives in Kennesaw, Georgia, an Atlanta suburb about 25 miles (40 kilometers) northwest of CDC headquarters. A voicemail left at a phone number listed publicly for White's family wasn't returned Saturday. Employees at the CDC are shaken The shooting left gaping bullet holes in windows across the CDC campus, where thousands work on critical disease research. Employees huddled under lockdown for hours while investigators gathered evidence. Staff was encouraged to work from home Monday or take leave. At least four CDC buildings were hit, Director Susan Monarez said on X. Sam Atkins, who lives in Stone Mountain, said outside the CVS pharmacy on Saturday that gun violence feels like 'a fact of life' now. 'This is an everyday thing that happens here in Georgia.' Kennedy reaches out to staff 'We are deeply saddened by the tragic shooting at CDC's Atlanta campus that took the life of officer David Rose,' Kennedy said Saturday. 'We know how shaken our public health colleagues feel today. No one should face violence while working to protect the health of others.' Some rejected the expressions of solidarity Kennedy made in a 'Dear colleagues' email, and called for his resignation. 'Kennedy is directly responsible for the villainization of CDC's workforce through his continuous lies about science and vaccine safety, which have fueled a climate of hostility and mistrust,' said Fired But Fighting, a group of laid-off employees opposing changes to the CDC by President Donald Trump's administration. Under Kennedy, CDC has laid off nearly 2,000 employees. Trump proposes cutting the agency's budget in half next year, moving some CDC functions into a new Administration for a Healthy America. Kennedy has a history as a leader in the anti-vaccine movement, but he reached new prominence by spreading distrust of COVID-19 vaccines. For example, he called it 'criminal medical malpractice' to give COVID-19 vaccines to children. Kennedy parlayed that attention into a presidential bid and endorsement of Trump, leading to Trump naming him secretary. Kennedy continues to undercut the scientific consensus for vaccines, ordering $500 million cut from vaccine development funding on Tuesday. Opponents say officials' rhetoric contributed Fired But Fighting also called for the resignation of Russell Vought, noting a video recorded before Trump appointed him Office of Management and Budget director with orders to dismantle much of the federal government. 'We want the bureaucrats to be traumatically affected,' Vought said in the video, obtained by ProPublica and the research group Documented. 'When they wake up in the morning, we want them to not want to go to work, because they are increasingly viewed as the villains.' A request for comment from Vought's agency wasn't returned. This shooting was the 'physical embodiment of the narrative that has taken over, attacking science, and attacking our federal workers,' said Sarah Boim, a former CDC communications staffer who was fired this year during a wave of terminations. A distrust of COVID-19 vaccines A neighbor of White told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution that White spoke with her multiple times about his distrust of COVID-19 vaccines. Nancy Hoalst, who lives on the same street as White's family, said he seemed like a 'good guy' while doing yard work and walking dogs for neighbors, but he would bring up vaccines even in unrelated conversations. 'He was very unsettled, and he very deeply believed that vaccines hurt him and were hurting other people.' Hoalst told the Atlanta newspaper. 'He emphatically believed that.' But Hoalst said she never believed White would be violent: 'I had no idea he thought he would take it out on the CDC.' Slain officer leaves wife and 3 kids Rose, 33, was a former Marine who served in Afghanistan, graduated from the police academy in March and 'quickly earned the respect of his colleagues for his dedication, courage and professionalism,' DeKalb County said. 'This evening, there is a wife without a husband. There are three children, one unborn, without a father,' DeKalb County CEO Lorraine Cochran-Johnson said. Growing security concerns Senior CDC leadership told some staff Saturday that they would do a full security assessment following the shooting, according to a conference call recording obtained by the AP. One staffer said people felt like 'sitting ducks' Friday. Another asked whether administrators had spoken with Kennedy and if they could speak to 'the misinformation, the disinformation' that 'caused this issue.' It is clear CDC leaders fear employees could continue to be targeted. In a Saturday email obtained by the AP, CDC's security office asked employees to scrape old CDC parking decals off their vehicles. The office said decals haven't been required for some time.
Asharq Al-Awsat
13 hours ago
- Asharq Al-Awsat
New York Declares Total War on Prolific Rat Population
New York is waging a war on multiple fronts to combat the near ubiquitous rats that plague city streets and the subways, leaving some residents afraid to let their children walk on sidewalks. Faced with an overwhelming and ever-growing problem, officials have moved beyond gassing burrows to suffocate rodents and are now using high-tech mapping tools to try and sterilize the population. Alongside targeted interventions, officials are mounting an effort to educate the public about the need to avoid leaving behind food waste that feeds and sustains the rat population. Caroline Bragdon, director of neighborhood interventions for Pest Control Services within New York City's Department of Health, told AFP that the lack of food "stresses" rats and other vermin. "Perhaps this forces them to go further in search of food, but perhaps they simply have fewer offspring," she said. "That's usually what we're seeing. Fewer rats over time. Less breeding leads to less rat activity," Bragdon added. The city is testing out an arsenal of different tools in the Harlem neighborhood, aiming to find new products and methods to tackle the rats. For large, densely populated cities like New York -- with its 8.5 million inhabitants -- food sources for the rodents are bountiful, whether it's on sidewalks, in overflowing trash bins, or in parks. "Lately, I haven't felt that I have to run in between the mounds of trash to run away from rats because they have those new (sealed trash) containers," said Harlem resident Karen Del Aguila, 50. Rats, which survive on practically the same diet as humans, can flourish even on items discarded as trash -- like soda cans thrown into recycling bins, or crumbs given to pigeons, warned Bragdon. A rat needs one ounce (28 grams) of food per day to sustain itself, and it can have up to 12 offspring per litter. During its short life of less than a year, it can have between five and seven litters. The best way to counter the scourge of rats is to "remove their food source... So make it harder for them, then they're going to have to travel further to try and find something," said Alexa Albert, a supervisor for the city's pest control service. - 'It can be done' - She swiped her screen to show the street-level data logged on a rat tracker app used by those involved in the crusade against rodent infestation. The city health department's 70 inspectors use the mobile app to detect, report and monitor rodent activity -- as well as plot abatement tactics. Inspectors go door to door asking businesses and residents to clean buildings, stores, and sidewalks. Authorities also now offer training on how to combat rats, taken by thousands of residents and building managers. In October 2022, New York City vaunted a "trash revolution," aimed at installing sealed containers to allow the removal of black bags of organic waste from sidewalks after rats surged during the coronavirus pandemic. Pre-pandemic, their population had been cut by as much as 90 percent in some areas. "So we know it can be done," said Bragdon, who added that she hoped 2025 would be a "turnaround year." Local resident Jessica Sanchez said she had observed much fewer rats in her neighborhood. "Not a long time ago, when you went to put out the trash, five of them came out," she said. "I was even afraid to put my son on the floor." The rat warriors are seeking to learn the rodents' dietary habits throughout the year by using samples of different food types to identify what bait they are most likely to take. In 2024, complaints about rat activity dropped 25 percent compared to the year before, according to official data. But so far, only Manhattan's Chinatown has managed to bring the rat population under control.
Arab News
2 days ago
- Arab News
Harvard scientists say research could be set back years after funding freeze
CAMBRIDGE: Harvard University professor Alberto Ascherio's research is literally frozen. Collected from millions of US soldiers over two decades using millions of dollars from taxpayers, the epidemiology and nutrition scientist has blood samples stored in liquid nitrogen freezers within the university's T.H. Chan School of Public Health. The samples are key to his award-winning research, which seeks a cure to multiple sclerosis and other neurodegenerative diseases. But for months, Ascherio has been unable to work with the samples because he lost $7 million in federal research funding, a casualty of Harvard's fight with the Trump administration. 'It's like we have been creating a state-of-the-art telescope to explore the universe, and now we don't have money to launch it,' said Ascherio. 'We built everything and now we are ready to use it to make a new discovery that could impact millions of people in the world and then, 'Poof. You're being cut off.'' Researchers laid off and science shelved The loss of an estimated $2.6 billion in federal funding at Harvard has meant that some of the world's most prominent researchers are laying off young researchers. They are shelving years or even decades of research, into everything from opioid addiction to cancer. And despite Harvard's lawsuits against the administration, and settlement talks between the warring parties, researchers are confronting the fact that some of their work may never resume. The funding cuts are part of a monthslong battle that the Trump administration has waged against some the country's top universities including Columbia, Brown and Northwestern. The administration has taken a particularly aggressive stance against Harvard, freezing funding after the country's oldest university rejected a series of government demands issued by a federal antisemitism task force. The government had demanded sweeping changes at Harvard related to campus protests, academics and admissions — meant to address government accusations that the university had become a hotbed of liberalism and tolerated anti-Jewish harassment. Research jeopardized, even if court case prevails Harvard responded by filing a federal lawsuit, accusing the Trump administration of waging a retaliation campaign against the university. In the lawsuit, it laid out reforms it had taken to address antisemitism but also vowed not to 'surrender its independence or relinquish its constitutional rights.' 'Make no mistake: Harvard rejects antisemitism and discrimination in all of its forms and is actively making structural reforms to eradicate antisemitism on campus,' the university said in its legal complaint. 'But rather than engage with Harvard regarding those ongoing efforts, the Government announced a sweeping freeze of funding for medical, scientific, technological, and other research that has nothing at all to do with antisemitism.' The Trump administration denies the cuts were made in retaliation, saying the grants were under review even before the demands were sent in April. It argues the government has wide discretion to cancel federal contracts for policy reasons. The funding cuts have left Harvard's research community in a state of shock, feeling as if they are being unfairly targeted in a fight has nothing to do with them. Some have been forced to shutter labs or scramble to find nongovernment funding to replace lost money. In May, Harvard announced that it would put up at least $250 million of its own money to continue research efforts, but university President Alan Garber warned of 'difficult decisions and sacrifices' ahead. Ascherio said the university was able to pull together funding to pay his researchers' salaries until next June. But he's still been left without resources needed to fund critical research tasks, like lab work. Even a year's delay can put his research back five years, he said. Knowledge lost in funding freeze 'It's really devastating,' agreed Rita Hamad, the director of the Social Policies for Health Equity Research Center at Harvard, who had three multiyear grants totaling $10 million canceled by the Trump administration. The grants funded research into the impact of school segregation on heart health, how pandemic-era policies in over 250 counties affected mental health, and the role of neighborhood factors in dementia. At the School of Public Health, where Hamad is based, 190 grants have been terminated, affecting roughly 130 scientists. 'Just thinking about all the knowledge that's not going to be gained or that is going to be actively lost,' Hamad said. She expects significant layoffs on her team if the funding freeze continues for a few more months. 'It's all just a mixture of frustration and anger and sadness all the time, every day.' John Quackenbush, a professor of computational biology and bioinformatics at the School of Public Health, has spent the past few months enduring cuts on multiple fronts. In April, a multimillion dollar grant was not renewed, jeopardizing a study into the role sex plays in disease. In May, he lost about $1.2 million in federal funding for in the coming year due to the Harvard freeze. Four departmental grants worth $24 million that funded training of doctoral students also were canceled as part of the fight with the Trump administration, Quackenbush said. 'I'm in a position where I have to really think about, 'Can I revive this research?'' he said. 'Can I restart these programs even if Harvard and the Trump administration reached some kind of settlement? If they do reach a settlement, how quickly can the funding be turned back on? Can it be turned back on?' The researchers all agreed that the funding cuts have little or nothing to do with the university's fight against antisemitism. Some, however, argue changes at Harvard were long overdue and pressure from the Trump administration was necessary. Bertha Madras, a Harvard psychobiologist who lost funding to create a free, parent-focused training to prevent teen opioid overdose and drug use, said she's happy to see the culling of what she called 'politically motivated social science studies.' White House pressure a good thing? Madras said pressure from the White House has catalyzed much-needed reform at the university, where several programs of study have 'really gone off the wall in terms of being shaped by orthodoxy that is not representative of the country as a whole.' But Madras, who served on the President's Commission on Opioids during Trump's first term, said holding scientists' research funding hostage as a bargaining chip doesn't make sense. 'I don't know if reform would have happened without the president of the United States pointing the bony finger at Harvard,' she said. 'But sacrificing science is problematic, and it's very worrisome because it is one of the major pillars of strength of the country.' Quackenbush and other Harvard researchers argue the cuts are part of a larger attack on science by the Trump administration that puts the country's reputation as the global research leader at risk. Support for students and post-doctoral fellows has been slashed, visas for foreign scholars threatened, and new guidelines and funding cuts at the NIH will make it much more difficult to get federal funding in the future, they said. It also will be difficult to replace federal funding with money from the private sector. 'We're all sort of moving toward this future in which this 80-year partnership between the government and the universities is going to be jeopardized,' Quackenbush said. 'We're going to face real challenges in continuing to lead the world in scientific excellence.'
