CDC asks all staff to return to office Sept. 15 after HQ shooting

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention told staff it expects them to return to offices by Sept. 15, roughly five weeks after a gunman’s deadly attack on the agency’s headquarters in Atlanta, CNBC has learned. 

“Your safety stays our top priority. We’re taking essential steps to revive our workplace and can return to regular on-site operations no later than Monday, September 15,” Lynda Chapman, the agency’s recent chief operating officer, said in an email sent Thursday that was viewed by CNBC.

Chapman said all staff shall be expected to return to their offices by that date, in accordance with the e-mail. For workers whose workspaces remain impacted by the shooting — including physical damage from the gunman’s attack — the CDC will provide alternative spaces on its campus, Chapman wrote in the e-mail. 

She said the agency has made “significant progress” on repairs on the CDC Roybal Campus in Atlanta. CDC leadership and a “Response and Recovery Management” team are working to deal with staff concerns and ensure a secure environment because the agency transitions back to in-office work, Chapman added. 

CDC staff had been instructed to work remotely following the Aug. 8 shooting, with options to return to the office within the weeks that followed, in accordance with two people accustomed to the matter, who requested anonymity for fear of retribution for chatting with the media.

The Department of Health and Human Services didn’t immediately reply to a request for comment.

The interior announcement comes at a tumultuous time for the CDC and its workforce. The shooting didn’t lead to injuries amongst CDC staff but shell-shocked a workforce that was already reeling from sweeping changes under HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., including staff cuts and heated controversy over his efforts to alter CDC immunization policies and fire the agency’s panel of vaccine advisors.

The return-to-office guidance also comes because the CDC grapples with a leadership upheaval: The White House earlier this week said President Donald Trump had fired the agency’s director, Susan Monarez. 4 other top officials resigned, a few of them citing the politicization of the agency and a threat to public health.  

Authorities identified the gunman behind the shooting at CDC headquarters as Patrick Joseph White and said they recovered five guns and greater than 500 shell casings from the scene. Throughout the attack, agency employees were forced to barricade themselves in offices.

White fatally shot a responding police officer, 33-year-old David Rose, after which killed himself. White had blamed the Covid-19 vaccine for making him depressed and suicidal. 

Before her firing, Monarez appeared to directly blame the role of misinformation within the shooting, in accordance with an email sent to staff on Aug. 12 that was viewed by CNBC.

Within the note, Monarez said, “the hazards of misinformation and its promulgation has now led to deadly consequences. I’ll work to revive trust in public health to those that have lost it- through science, evidence, and clarity of purpose. I’ll need your help.”