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Associated Press

A Georgia man who opened fire on the US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) headquarters, shooting dozens of rounds into the sprawling complex and killing a police officer, had blamed the Covid-19 vaccine for making him depressed and suicidal, a law enforcement official said on Saturday.
The 30-year-old shooter 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 late Friday afternoon, the official said.
He was armed with five guns, including at least one long gun, the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to publicly discuss the investigation.
DeKalb County Police Officer David Rose was mortally wounded while responding.
Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jnr, whose scepticism of vaccines has been a cornerstone of his career, voiced support for CDC employees on Saturday. But some laid-off CDC employees said Kennedy shared responsibility for the violence and should resign.
The Georgia Bureau of Investigation named Patrick Joseph White as the shooter, but authorities have not said whether he was killed by police or killed himself.

The suspect’s father contacted police and identified his son as the possible shooter, the law enforcement official said.
The father said his son had been upset over the death of the son’s dog, and he had also become fixated on the Covid-19 vaccine, according to the official. The family lives in Kennesaw, Georgia, an Atlanta suburb about 40km (25 miles) northwest of CDC headquarters.
A voicemail left at a phone number listed publicly for White’s family was not returned on Saturday.
The shooting left gaping bullet holes in windows across the CDC campus, where thousands work on critical disease research. Employees huddled under lockdown for hours while investigators gathered evidence. Staff were encouraged to work from home on Monday or take leave.
At least four CDC buildings were hit, Director Susan Monarez said on social media.
Sam Atkins, who lives in Stone Mountain, said outside a CVS pharmacy on Saturday that gun violence felt like “a fact of life” now. “This is an everyday thing that happens here in Georgia.”
“We are deeply saddened by the tragic shooting at CDC’s Atlanta campus that took the life of officer David Rose,” Kennedy said on Saturday. “We know how shaken our public health colleagues feel today. No one should face violence while working to protect the health of others.”
Some rejected the expressions of solidarity Kennedy made in a “Dear colleagues” email, and called for his resignation.
“Kennedy is directly responsible for the villainisation of the CDC’s workforce through his continuous lies about science and vaccine safety, which have fuelled a climate of hostility and mistrust,” said Fired But Fighting, a group of laid-off employees opposing changes to the CDC by US President Donald Trump’s administration.

Under Kennedy, the CDC has laid off nearly 2,000 employees. Trump proposes cutting the agency’s budget in half next year, moving some CDC functions into a new Administration for a Healthy America.
Kennedy has a history as a leader in the anti-vaccine movement, but he reached new prominence by spreading distrust of Covid-19 vaccines. For example, he called it “criminal medical malpractice” to give Covid-19 vaccines to children.
Kennedy parlayed that attention into a presidential bid and endorsement of Trump, leading to Trump naming him secretary. Kennedy continues to undercut the scientific consensus for vaccines, ordering US$500 million cut from vaccine development funding on Tuesday.
Fired But Fighting also called for the resignation of Russell Vought, noting a video recorded before Trump appointed him Office of Management and Budget director with orders to dismantle much of the federal government.
“We want the bureaucrats to be traumatically affected,” Vought said in the video, obtained by ProPublica and the research group Documented. “When they wake up in the morning, we want them to not want to go to work, because they are increasingly viewed as the villains.”
A request for comment from Vought’s agency was not returned.
This shooting was the “physical embodiment of the narrative that has taken over, attacking science, and attacking our federal workers,” said Sarah Boim, a former CDC communications employee who was fired this year during a wave of terminations.
A neighbour of White told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution that White spoke with her multiple times about his distrust of Covid-19 vaccines.
Nancy Hoalst, who lives on the same street as White’s family, said he seemed like a “good guy” while doing yard work and walking dogs for neighbours, but he would bring up vaccines even in unrelated conversations.

“He was very unsettled, and he very deeply believed that vaccines hurt him and were hurting other people,” Hoalst told the Atlanta newspaper. “He emphatically believed that.”
But Hoalst said she never believed White would be violent: “I had no idea he thought he would take it out on the CDC.”
Slain officer Rose, 33, was a former Marine who served in Afghanistan, graduated from the police academy in March and “quickly earned the respect of his colleagues for his dedication, courage and professionalism,” DeKalb County said.
“This evening, there is a wife without a husband. There are three children, one unborn, without a father,” DeKalb County CEO Lorraine Cochran-Johnson said.
Senior CDC leadership told some staff members on Saturday that they would do a full security assessment following the shooting, according to a conference call recording obtained by the Associated Press.
One staff member said people felt like “sitting ducks” on Friday. Another asked whether administrators had spoken with Kennedy and if they could speak to “the misinformation, the disinformation” that “caused this issue”.
It is clear CDC leaders fear employees could continue to be targeted. In a Saturday email obtained by AP, CDC’s security office asked employees to scrape old CDC parking decals off their vehicles. The office said decals have not been required for some time.
If you have suicidal thoughts or know someone who is experiencing them, help is available. In Hong Kong, you can dial 18111 for the government-run Mental Health Support Hotline. You can also call +852 2896 0000 for The Samaritans or +852 2382 0000 for Suicide Prevention Services. In the US, call or text 988 or chat at 988lifeline.org for the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline. For a list of other nations’ helplines, see this page.


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Patrick Joseph White was armed with five guns and tried to get into the health agency headquarters before being stopped by guards


Patrick Joseph White was armed with five guns and tried to get into the health agency headquarters before being stopped by guards.


Killer who shot at US CDC offices believed Covid vaccine made him suicidal, father says

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}Patrick Joseph White was armed with five guns and tried to get into the health agency headquarters before being stopped by guards

Patrick Joseph White was armed with five guns and tried to get into the health agency headquarters before being stopped by guards