CDC shooter blamed COVID vaccine for depression
A Georgia man who had blamed the COVID-19 vaccine for making him depressed and suicidal has been identified as the shooter who opened fire late Friday on the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) headquarters, killing a police officer.
The 30-year-old suspect, who died during the incident, had 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, a law enforcement official told The Associated Press (AP) on Saturday.
The man, identified as Patrick Joseph White, 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.
A union representing workers at the CDC said the incident was not random and “compounds months of mistreatment, neglect and vilification that CDC staff have endured.” It demanded federal officials condemn vaccine misinformation, saying it was putting scientists at risk.
Dead at the scene
Here’s what to know about the shooting and the continuing investigation:
Police say White opened fire outside the CDC headquarters in Atlanta on Friday, leaving bullet marks in windows across the sprawling campus. At least four CDC buildings were hit, Director Susan Monarez said on X.
DeKalb County Police Officer David Rose was mortally wounded while responding. Rose, 33, a former Marine who served in Afghanistan, had graduated from the police academy in March.
White was found on the second floor of a building across the street from the CDC campus and died at the scene, Atlanta Police Chief Darin Schierbaum said. He added that “we do not know at this time whether that was from officers or if it was self-inflicted.”
The Georgia Bureau of Investigations said the crime scene was “complex” and the investigation would take “an extended period of time.”
The American Federation of Government Employees, Local 2883, said the CDC and leadership of the Department of Health and Human Services must provide a “clear and unequivocal stance in condemning vaccine disinformation.”
Such a public statement by federal officials is needed to help prevent violence against scientists, the union said in a news release.
“Their leadership is critical in reinforcing public trust and ensuring that accurate, science-based information prevails,” the union said.
Sokor study
Fired But Fighting, a group of laid-off CDC employees has said HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. 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.”
A large South Korean study has found a link between COVID-19 vaccination with depression and other psychiatric adverse effects.
The study published on the National Library of Medicine of the National Institutes of Health compared large sections of the South Korean population that received a COVID-19 vaccine and those that did not.
Findings posted online said, “The cumulative incidence of depression, anxiety, dissociative, stress-related, and somatoform disorders, sleep disorders, and sexual disorders at three months following COVID-19 vaccination were higher in the vaccination group than no vaccination group.”
Kennedy reached out to the CDC staff on Saturday, saying “no one should face violence while working to protect the health of others.”
Thousands of people who work on critical disease research are employed on the campus. The union said some staff were huddled in various buildings until late at night, including more than 90 young children who were locked down inside the CDC’s Clifton School.
