ARI SHAPIRO, HOST:
On Friday afternoon, a gunman stood across the street from the CDC's main campus in Atlanta and fired round after round into the buildings where the nation's top public health scientists work. Employees hid under desks. Children sheltered at an on-campus day care. A police officer who responded to the scene was killed. NPR health correspondent Pien Huang is here to tell us more. Pien, what exactly happened on Friday?
PIEN HUANG, BYLINE: So police say that the gunman targeted the main campus of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The shooting started around 5 o'clock, and it led to terror and mayhem on campus. I spoke with a few CDC staffers, and NPR is granting them anonymity because they're afraid for their jobs, and they're not authorized to talk to the press about what happened. But they say that workers barricaded themselves in their offices. They pushed file cabinets against the doors. They hid in closets. And these buildings are covered with these floor-to-ceiling glass windows that are blast-resistant but not bulletproof.
According to preliminary reports, the gunman fired more than 180 rounds at the CDC campus, hit more than 80 windows and at least four buildings and shattered the security shack that guards the main entrance. The gunman killed a responding officer from the DeKalb County police force, and then the gunman was found dead at the scene. It's not clear yet whether he was killed by police or if he shot himself.
SHAPIRO: Any information about why the shooting happened?
HUANG: Well, one of the potential reasons police gave is that the shooter thought that the COVID vaccines had made him sick. And staffers at CDC and others say that, as bad as the situation is, it's an escalation of a trend that they've been seeing over the past few years. Research has shown that during COVID, 1 out of 3 public health workers experienced job threats or harassment due to their work. And since then, public health workers have continued to be targeted and threatened by people who didn't like the guidance on masks and vaccines and other public health policies. Dr. Ali Khan is a former CDC official. He's now at the University of Nebraska Medical Center.
ALI KHAN: The responsibility for this lies not just with the shooter but those who have been spreading disinformation and misinformation against public health.
HUANG: And according to those who attended a CDC staff meeting over the weekend, some staffers said that Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is partly to blame. He's the health secretary, and he has said that COVID vaccines are dangerous, even though there have been many studies that have shown that they are safe and effective.
SHAPIRO: Well, how has the health secretary responded to the shooting?
HUANG: Well, over the weekend, Kennedy sent an email to staff, and today he visited the CDC. He met with Susan Monarez, who's the new director. She's been on the job for less than two weeks. Kennedy also met with security and police. And staffers at CDC are working from home this week as cleanup and repairs start happening on campus. Those who were on site are being offered administrative leave and mental health resources. And it's been a tough few days for CDC staff after a really tough year, Ari. I mean, they've lost thousands of colleagues to reductions in force and early retirements. They've been facing budget cuts and the elimination of entire research programs, including the one that works on gun violence prevention.
SHAPIRO: That is NPR's Pien Huang. Thank you.
HUANG: Thank you. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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