A sign for the CDC is outside their establishment at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Roybal Campus in Atlanta, Georgia, United States, May 30, 2025.
Megan Varner | Reuters
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have told staff that they expect to return to offices by September 15, about five weeks after the mortal attack of a shooter against the agency’s headquarters in Atlanta, CNBC learned.
“Your security remains our absolute priority. We take the necessary measures to restore our workplace and will return to regular operations on site no later than Monday, September 15,” said Lynda Chapman, the new agency operations chief, in an email sent Thursday who was consulted by CNBC.
Chapman said that all the staff will have to return to their offices on this date, according to the email. For employees whose workspaces remain affected by the shooting – including physical damage to the shooter’s attack – the CDC will provide alternative spaces on its campus, Chapman wrote in the email.
She said the agency had made “significant progress” during repairs to the CDC Roybal campus in Atlanta. The leadership of the CDC and a team of “response and management of recovery” work to respond to staff concerns and ensure a safe environment as the agency dates back to office work, Chapman added.
The CDC staff were invited to work remotely after the August 8 shootout, with options to return to the office in the weeks, according to two people familiar with the issue, who asked for anonymity for fear of reprisals for having spoken to the media.
The Ministry of Health and Social Services did not immediately respond to a request for comments.
The internal announcement arrives at a tumultuous moment for the CDC and its workforce. The shooting did not lead to injuries among the CDC staff, but obtained a workforce which was already in shock from radical changes under the secretary of the HHS, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., including the cuts of staff and the controversy animated by his efforts to modify the policies of the immunization of the CDC and to dismiss the panel of vaccine advisers of the agency.
The advice of return to the office also occur while the CDC is doing with a leadership upheaval: the White House earlier this week said that President Donald Trump had dismissed the agency director, Susan Monarez. Four other senior officials resigned, some of which citing the agency politicization and a threat to public health.
The authorities identified the shooter behind the shooting at the CDC’s seat as Patrick Joseph White and said they had recovered five cannons and more than 500 piles of shells from the scene. During the attack, agency employees were forced to barricade themselves in the offices.
White fatally killed a police officer who answers David, 33, then committed suicide. White had blamed the covid-19 vaccine for depressed and suicidal.
Before his dismissal, Monarez seemed to blame the role of disinformation in the shooting directly, according to an email sent to the staff on August 12, consulted by CNBC.
In the note, Monarez said: “The dangers of disinformation and its promulgation have now led to deadly consequences. I will work to restore public health to those who have lost it – through science, proofs and the clarity of the objective. I will need your aid.”