For employees of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the hits keep coming.
The Covid-19 pandemic made the agency a frequent target of lawmakers and segments of the general public. Events took an even darker turn when a gunman opened fire on C.D.C. headquarters in Atlanta this month, spraying hundreds of bullets and killing a police officer.
And on Wednesday, employees reeled from news that the agency’s new director, Susan Monarez, had been fired after less than a month on the job — followed by her announcement that she was refusing to leave.
On Thursday morning, three senior officials were escorted from the building after announcing on Wednesday that they would quit over Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy’s vaccine policies. Staff members gathered outside the C.D.C.’s gates to celebrate the leaders who had resigned.
“It’s brutal,” one employee said. “Everyone is in tears because we love and care about this agency so much.”
Mr. Kennedy has long held the agency in contempt, accusing its scientists of corruption and incompetence, and of hiding what he believes are links between some vaccines and autism.
He once compared immunizing children to practices in Nazi death camps.
“There’s a lot of trouble at C.D.C., and it’s going to require getting rid of some people over the long term in order for us to change the institutional culture,” Mr. Kennedy said at a news briefing on Thursday.
In interviews, about two dozen C.D.C. employees said that the mood inside the agency was bleak. Some blamed Mr. Kennedy for what they felt was a campaign waged against science.
Others said they were terrified for the future of the C.D.C. and the nation’s health. Some said they were in shock. All spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of retaliation.
“We’re scared for ourselves and for the country,” one said.
At one small group meeting Thursday morning, two people broke down in tears, according to an employee who was present. At another meeting, a senior leader who has always stayed calm under pressure was visibly shaking, another scientist said.
Several groups of employees were discussing striking before a colleague reminded them that strikes by federal workers were felonies punishable by a permanent ban from federal service.
Many employees had been skeptical of the ability of Dr. Monarez, an infectious disease expert, to defend the agency. After she refused to fire senior leaders or to rubber-stamp what she felt were unscientific vaccine policies, they changed their minds.
Staffers also were contending with fresh rumors that as many as 100 people will soon lose their jobs.
The C.D.C. had already weathered a downsizing in April, losing entire divisions and thousands of employees. (Some were later rehired.) Some C.D.C. leaders were placed on administrative leave.
Others left, saying they feared for the lives of Americans if Mr. Kennedy were to continue his course. “I can’t imagine who is going to stay at this point if they have any alternative,” one staff member said.
The latest blow arrived on Wednesday as three of the agency’s highest-profile officials resigned. The officials all dealt with vaccines in some way.
“These colleagues are the X-Men of public health — courageous, thoughtful, and dedicated to using the best research and policies to answer lifesaving questions,” said Dr. Jonathan Mermin, who served as director of the C.D.C.’s center for H.I.V. and sexually transmitted infections. He has been on administrative leave since April.
On Thursday afternoon, hundreds of C.D.C. employees, including some in full service uniforms, gathered outside the agency, cheering and clapping for the three officials who had quit.
Some carried signs saying “Save the C.D.C.” and thanking the officials for their service. Hundreds more watched online, reacting with heart emojis.
The officials who resigned were upset in particular over Mr. Kennedy’s attempts to undermine vaccines and cut back on those that Americans can access easily.
Dr. Daniel Jernigan, who led the center that oversees emerging diseases and vaccine safety, said he decided to resign before he was dismissed, in part hoping that doing so would allow Dr. Monarez to continue as the director.
“If we were the problem, and she had the opportunity to actually stay, removing us as a problem I think was something that we were willing to do,” he said.
The other officials who left on Thursday were Dr. Debra Houry, the agency’s chief medical officer, and Dr. Demetre Daskalakis, who ran the center that oversees respiratory illnesses and issues vaccine recommendations. They said their concerns had escalated sharply after new members of the agency’s vaccine advisory panel said that they would revisit the childhood and adolescent vaccination schedules in the fall.
The panel may curtail access to several vaccines. “It really is transparent that these decisions have all been predestined,” Dr. Daskalakis said.
Apoorva Mandavilli reports on science and global health for The Times, with a focus on infectious diseases and pandemics and the public health agencies that try to manage them.
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