After last week’s devastating shooting that claimed the life of Officer David Rose, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), has responded. He directed all flags at HHS buildings to be flown at half-staff through Friday. This gesture is intended to pay tribute to Rose’s memory and his service to this country. The shooting has left many at the CDC fearful for their safety, leading to immediate calls for better security to protect CDC staff.
On Monday, Kennedy toured the CDC campus where he met with Rose’s widowed spouse, extending his sympathies. In a statement, he emphasized that HHS “will honor her husband’s heroism, sacrifice, and unwavering service to our country.” Kennedy’s statement was undoubtedly intended to reassure a demoralized CDC workforce. This may just be coincidence, or it may be that they come as the Biden administration faces unprecedented worker anxiety over workplace safety.
Kennedy’s rampage has made it nearly impossible to reassure worried CDC employees. For years, he has stoked and fanned the flames of doubting and hating public health interventions in this country. His attention has especially been laser-like on vaccines. He’s spread pseudoscientific fearmongering around COVID-19 vaccines, describing them as the “deadliest vaccines ever created.” Before, he pledged to drain the “cesspool of corruption” out of the agency. The underpinnings of his Make America Healthy Again agenda are impressively based on lambasting the state of our nation’s public health infrastructure.
After the shooting of Officer Rose, CDC staff members expressed concerns about their safety in their workplace. Many have expressed that Kennedy’s history of stoking mistrust in health leaders has further complicated their ability to feel secure. One employee noted, “Our secretary has used violent, hateful rhetoric about CDC in the recent past,” leading to a lack of trust in his commitment to employee safety.
Andrew Nixon, a spokesperson for HHS, surfaced these points in an effort to alleviate these concerns. He stated, “Secretary Kennedy has unequivocally condemned the horrific attack and remains fully committed to ensuring the safety and well-being of CDC employees.” This statement did not do much to calm the mounting frustrations of staff workers.
One employee who participated in those internal conversations told us culture was poisoned with the feeling of “lamentation.” This gives an indication of emotional impact the event has had on the employees. One of the employees, Tyler McNamer, pointed out the need to move from words to specific action. They wrote, “Well-meaning expressions of condolences are no substitute for meaningful action that will allow us and our families to feel safe again.”
As those discussions happen internally, many CDC employees have come out demanding more visible security improvements. They would like to see targeted approaches that restore confidence among staff and do not lead to agencies developing a “Fortress Transpo” ethos of security. One employee stated, “I want leadership to prioritize visible security improvements that reassure staff without creating a fortress that distances us from the people we serve.”
Another attendee of internal meetings joined to discuss sweeping security breaches. When I heard that there were problems with boarding procedures, for example, some of those security lapses I’ve been hearing about are very, very concerning. Employees are more anxious than ever that without real, substantive change – nothing’s going to get better.
The feelings expressed by these CDC workers, unfortunately, seem to capture an increasing concern about the state of this agency. As one staff member put it, “The most difficult thing is that this was not sudden. Past staff described the agency’s current troubles as not having cropped up overnight. They view these challenges as inextricably linked to what we describe as the currents of historical resentment and the riptide of negative public perception.
Kennedy and HHS’s response is now under the harshest spotlight. Empowerment Employees are increasingly pressuring those at the top to demand accountability and visible change. As public health practitioners, they want their leaders to show that they are committed to keeping them safe and healthy.
“The loudest voices are those calling out the administration for feeding misinformation and stoking angry rhetoric.” – A fourth employee
