A signal for CDC is outside its facilities in the Centers for Nursing Control and Prevention Roybal Campus in Atlanta, Georgia, USA, May 30, 2025.
Megan varner | Reuters
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention told staff that they expect them to return to the offices before September 15, approximately five weeks after the deadly attack of a gun against the agency's headquarters in Atlanta, according to CNBC.
“Your security remains our main priority. We are taking the necessary measures to restore our workplace and we will return to regular operations at the site no later than Monday, September 15,” said Lynda Chapman, the new director of operations of the agency, in an email sent on Thursday that was seen by CNBC.
Chapman said that all personnel will return to their offices for that date, according to email. For employees whose work spaces remain affected by the shooting, including the physical damage of the gun attack, CDCs will provide alternative spaces on their campus, Chapman wrote in email.
She said the agency has made “significant progress” in repairs at the CDC Roybal Campus in Atlanta. The leadership of the CDC and a “response and recovery management team” are working to address staff concerns and guarantee a safe environment as the agency returns to work in the office, added Chapman.
The CDC staff received instructions to work remotely after the shooting of August 8, with options to return to the office in the weeks that followed, according to two people familiar with the matter, who requested anonymity for fear of remuneration for speaking with the media.
The Department of Health and Human Services did not immediately respond to a request for comments.
The internal announcement arrives at a tumultuous moment for the CDC and their workforce. The shooting did not result in injuries among the CDC staff, but Shell hit a workforce that was already recovering from the radical changes under the secretary of HHS Robert F. Kennedy Jr., including the cuts of the personnel and the controversy heated for their efforts to change the immunization policies of the CDC and shoot the panel of the agency of the agency of vaccines.
The guide to return to the office also occurs when the CDCs deal with a leadership agitation: the White House earlier this week said that President Donald Trump had fired the agency's director, Susan Monarez. Four other senior officials renounced, some of them cite the politicization of the agency and a threat to public health.
The authorities identified the gun behind the shooting at the headquarters of the CDC as Patrick Joseph White and said they recovered five weapons and more than 500 housings of the scene. During the attack, the agency's employees were forced to barrica in the offices.
White fatally shot a police officer who responded, David Rose, 33, and then committed suicide. White had blamed the COVID-19 vaccine for making it depressed and suicide.
Before his dismissal, Monarch seemed directly to the role of erroneous information in the shooting, according to an email sent to the staff on August 12 that was seen by CNBC.
In the note, Monarch said: “The dangers of erroneous information and their promulgation have now led to mortal consequences. I will work to restore confidence in public health to those who have lost it through science, evidence and clarity of purpose. I will need their help.”
