By Dan Levine and Robin Respaut
NEW YORK (Reuters) -Grappling with the aftermath of a shooting that killed a police officer and left nearly 100 shattered windows, leaders at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention held virtual meetings with employees on Tuesday to rebuild trust at the agency’s Atlanta headquarters.
CDC employees who can work from home have not returned to the building, which government leaders toured on Monday.
The Georgia Bureau of Investigation said on Tuesday during a press conference that nearly 200 rounds had struck six CDC buildings. A source briefed on the matter had previously told Reuters that 85 windows were broken and over 100 doors destroyed.
During an hour-long call with staff of the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, CDC Chief Medical Officer Dr. Debra Houry described the walk through the campus as devastating.
“I saw glass everywhere…I saw glass outside your doors and the bullet holes by some of your doors,” Houry said, according to a copy of the recording reviewed by Reuters.
During the call, employees described feelings of anger, desperation and isolation, and noted that they felt the extent of the shooting was not receiving the attention it deserved.
Georgia investigators said they had found written documents in the shooter’s home in which he expressed discontent with the COVID-19 vaccine. He died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
Since being named U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary earlier this year, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has targeted vaccine policy, and in May withdrew a federal recommendation for COVID shots for pregnant women and healthy children. Kennedy toured the site on Monday and said no one should face violence while working to protect the health of others.
Dr. Demetre Daskalakis, director of the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, defended the CDC as an agency whose goal is to keep the people it serves healthy and safe.
“People, through their words and actions, have created an environment where mistrust and dehumanization of public health and the people that do the lifesaving work have been used as weapons. It’s our turn, as public health professionals, to demand that the trust that we have lost be rebuilt,” he said during the call.
A separate all-staff meeting that had been planned by CDC Director Susan Monarez became a virtual-only, short call on Tuesday without a question and answer session, according to a recording reviewed by Reuters.
(Reporting by Dan Levine and Robin Respaut in San Francisco; Editing by Caroline Humer and Lisa Shumaker)
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