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Atlantic
10-08-2025
- Health
- Atlantic
CDC Staffers Saw the Violence Coming
When gunfire pelted the Atlanta-based headquarters of the CDC yesterday, hundreds of employees were inside the campus's buildings. The experience was terrifying. But some of the employees were not particularly shocked. 'I'm actually surprised it didn't happen sooner,' a nearly 20-year veteran of the agency told me. (She, like others I spoke with for this article, requested anonymity out of fear of losing her job.) This was, in one sense, the first attack of its kind on the CDC. The shooter, whom law-enforcment officials have identified as Patrick Joseph White, a 30-year-old resident of an Atlanta suburb, was reportedly fixated on the idea that the COVID-19 vaccine had made him depressed and suicidal. No employees were injured by the bullets that entered the buildings, according to a CDC representative. But an Atlanta police officer named David Rose was shot and later died from his injuries. White, too, was found dead—fatally shot—at the scene. (It is not yet clear if his wound was self-inflicted or if he was killed by police.) When he took aim at the agency on Friday afternoon, he was near a corner where a lone man stands holding anti-vaccine signs nearly every day, several CDC staffers told me. In another sense, public-health workers have been facing escalating hostility since the early days of the pandemic. In 2020, armed protesters gathered on the Ohio Health Department director's front lawn, and the chief health officer of Orange County, California, was met with death threats after issuing a mask mandate. She had to hire extra security and was eventually driven to resign. Anthony Fauci, who served as the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases during the country's initial COVID response, has faced regular death threats since 2020. Nearly a third of state, local, and tribal public-health workers reported facing some sort of workplace violence in a 2021 survey. Last year, Fauci told CNN's Kaitlan Collins that threats of violence to public-health workers correlate with verbal attacks from high-profile politicians and media personalities. 'It's like clockwork,' he said. In the second Trump administration, those attacks have become commonplace—the very selling points, even, that have helped a number of Trump's health appointees gain their positions. In 2024, when announcing his own pick for CDC director, President Donald Trump maligned the CDC and other federal health agencies, accusing them of having 'engaged in censorship, data manipulation, and misinformation.' Robert F. Kennedy Jr. was already a longtime anti-vaccine activist when he took the mantle as America's health secretary; he has compared vaccinating children to the abuses of the Catholic church. During his own 2024 presidential run, he promised to 'clean up the cesspool of corruption at CDC.' 'Normally, threats to public servants aren't inspired from leadership of their own organization,' another CDC staffer said in a group chat among current and former employees. According to an MSNBC report, during an all-hands meeting today, CDC staff blamed the shooting at least partly on Kennedy's combative attitude toward the agency. 'We need them to stop fanning the flames of hatred against us, stop spreading misinformation,' one employee wrote in the meeting chat, naming Kennedy in the same comment. 'We will not be safe until they stop their attacks against us.' The shooter appears to have brought five guns to the scene, and at least four federal buildings were struck by dozens of bullets. In the hours immediately after the shooting, while many CDC employees remained barricaded in offices and marooned in conference rooms, they heard nothing from Kennedy or Trump. Last night, Susan Monarez, the newly confirmed CDC director, issued a short statement reiterating the basic facts of the shooting. 'We at CDC are heartbroken by today's attack on our Roybal Campus,' she wrote. 'Our top priority is the safety and well-being of everyone at CDC.' Late this morning, Kennedy sent an email to the entire staff of the Department of Health and Human Services offering support and prayers. In a post on X at around the same time, he wrote, 'No one should face violence while working to protect the health of others.' This evening, Monarez sent a more substantial email pledging to support the CDC during its recovery and noting its resilience. 'We have faced adversity before, and we will do so again, drawing strength from our shared commitment to public health,' she wrote. The president has not yet made a statement about the attack. (The White House and HHS did not respond to requests for comment.) To the CDC employees I spoke with, the sluggish response is the latest episode in the administration's escalating abandonment of the agency. Since January, the Trump administration has hit the CDC with massive layoffs, proposed halving its budget, and forced changes to internal policies governing the fundamentals of its scientific work. Earlier this year, Kennedy purged the committee that advises the CDC on vaccine recommendations. Just this week, he canceled nearly $500 million in federally funded research on mRNA vaccines —widely considered among CDC employees and public-health experts to be the greatest domestic triumph of the U.S. pandemic response—stating incorrectly that they cause more risk than benefit against the flu and COVID. For CDC staff, the wider threat does not seem to have passed. This evening, a group of CDC employees were trading tips on peeling off their old parking decals after the agency's security office reportedly asked staff to remove them from their cars. One person suggested covering them with other stickers; another recommended loosening them with cooking oil. Even people who have volunteered for risky missions in their public-health work are still getting used to the idea that the danger has arrived at the home front. 'I've put my life on the line for this agency, responding to outbreaks in some of the most dangerous parts of the world,' a 13-year veteran of the agency told me. 'I didn't expect to face the same risks at the Atlanta campus as I faced in South Sudan.'
Yahoo
12-06-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Ohio House Dem Leader Russo on plans, ‘There will be more time for this discussion at a later point'
Ohio House Minority Leader Allison Russo, D-Upper Arlington. (Photo by Graham Stokes for Ohio Capital Journal. Republish photo only with original story.) Ohio House Minority Leader Allison Russo is continuing to stay quiet about any potential future political plans she might have in wake of her announcement last week to step down from her leadership at the end of the month. 'I want to get through this transition first, make sure that the new leadership team has all the support and they get into place,' the Democratic lawmaker from Upper Arlington said when asked if she is considering a run for statewide office. 'I'm going to take some time off. I'll be with my family during July, and there will be more time for this discussion at a later point.' SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX All four statewide executive offices of governor, attorney general, auditor, and secretary of state are up for open election in 2026, with all of the current Republican incumbents term-limited out of running for the same positions again. Former Ohio Health Department Director Dr. Amy Acton is currently the only Democratic candidate running for Ohio governor. Republican candidates include businessman Vivek Ramaswamy and former Morgan County school board president Heather Hill. Democrats are waiting to see if former U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown will run for Senate or Ohio governor, or nothing at all. Current Republican Ohio Auditor Keith Faber is running for attorney general in 2026; current Republican Ohio Treasurer Robert Sprague is running for secretary of state in 2026; and current Republican Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose is running for auditor in 2026. Current Republican Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost had been running for governor, but recently dropped out of the race after the Ohio Republican Party endorsed Ramaswamy. Bryan Hambley, a cancer doctor with University of Cincinnati Health, is the only announced Democratic candidate for Ohio Secretary of State. No other Democrats have yet announced their candidacy in 2026 for Ohio auditor, treasurer, or attorney general. The last time any Democratic candidates won any of Ohio's statewide executive offices was in 2006, when Ted Strickland was elected governor, Marc Dann was elected attorney general, Rich Cordray was elected treasurer, and Jennifer Brunner was elected secretary of state. They were all swept out of office in the 2010 cycle. The vote for a new Ohio House Minority Leader is expected to happen the last week of June, right before the lawmakers go on summer break, Russo said. 'I'm not making any endorsements,' she said. 'The decision about who will leave this caucus next is up to the entire caucus, not one individual member.' Ohio House Speaker Matt Huffman, R-Lima, said he has no idea who is going to replace Russo. 'I said to members of our caucus, obviously, they're free to vote however they want, but we're just going to wait to see what comes out of the minority caucus and deal with that,' he said. Russo is term-limited and her term ends on Dec. 31, 2026. 'I'm looking forward to shifting my focus to policy work and being back on committees,' she said. 'I'm excited about the potential of the new leadership team and the energy that brings and to work alongside those folks.' Follow Capital Journal Reporter Megan Henry on Bluesky. SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE
Yahoo
27-03-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Team: Acton setting gubernatorial fundraising records
COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) — Ohio's next gubernatorial election is 21 months away but the candidates are already reaching out to voters. Republican frontrunner Vivek Ramaswamy, who is endorsed by President Donald Trump, has already begun airing advertising. The lone Democrat in the race so far, former Ohio Health Department Director Dr. Amy Acton, is shattering the first quarter fundraising record for Democrats. Her team said that by the time the first quarter ends next Monday, she will have $600,000 in her campaign coffers, beating the previous record for a Democrat: former Gov. Ted Strickland raised $472,000 in 2009. Acton's team said it is a grassroots effort with more than 10,000 donors from all 88 of Ohio's counties. The figures raised by the three Republicans in the race – Ramaswamy, Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost, and Morgan County's Heather Hill – have not yet been released. Campaign finance reports are due to the state by Monday; the state is expected to release them later in April. Acton, a first-time candidate, served as health director under Gov. Mike DeWine during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic. In a statement, Acton said, 'I'm incredibly grateful to so many in Ohio who are embracing our movement and hungry for change.' Ramaswamy, also promising change, hasn't released his financial information for the governor's race, but during his short 2024 presidential campaign, he raised more than $66 million. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
09-03-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Looking back: 5 years since the pandemic began
(WKBN) — It's been five years since the first case of COVID-19 was reported in Ohio, and First News is looking back at the pandemic with a local county health official. According to the Ohio Health Department, the first positive case of COVID-19 was reported on March 9, 2020, but Laura Fauss with Columbiana County Health District says the state health department started meetings in January. 'Once we saw it leave China with how mobile our society is, it's not really that surprising, but because we had such limited knowledge on the virus, we really didn't know what was going to happen,' Fauss said. Health departments relied on proven ways to stop the spread of any diseases — washing hands, covering a cough with an elbow and maintaining distance from others. Just a week after the first case in Ohio, closures and stay-at-home orders started to roll out. Fauss says while it was surprising to many, it was always a possibility. 'We had done a preparedness drill similar to this related to the flu. So, that's something that's always on our minds — it's always a possibility whether it really occurs. We all went through this, we all know it felt like a movie. It didn't feel like reality. So, it really occurring is surprising,' Fauss said. The first case in Columbiana County was recorded March 20, 2020, and the first vaccine wasn't available until December 2020. Fauss said that was challenging but there were positives. 'Working in local public health in Columbiana County — one of the things I really want to get out to the community is their dedication and hard work. They did their part in stopping the spread of the disease and, in turn, saved lives,' Fauss said. Now, five years later, she says waste water monitoring in larger cities and telemedicine for rural areas are positives that came out of the pandemic, but the healthcare workforce took a big hit that is still present. 'In Ohio, I can speak specifically to the public health workforce all over the state that there's still staffing shortages,' Fauss. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
