CDC protesters ask RFK Jr. to visit Atlanta and see their work

ATLANTA — At a protest Tuesday in front of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention building in Chamblee, retired CDC scientists said they remain baffled by Trump administration layoffs, and fear the cuts could curtail the very research that Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has used to make his case for better public health.

“RFK needs to come to this lab,” said Steve Monroe, a former CDC associate director for lab sciences, while holding a placard at the building’s Buford Highway entrance. Monroe said that much of the lab’s research aims to make food and water safer for Americans.

Two dozen retired CDC scientists greeted cars honking in support of the agency’s work.

Their aim was to support friends and colleagues inside who fear for their jobs. But they also wanted to bring attention to the potential harm that Republican-backed cuts could mean for Georgia, since CDC funds sent to the state’s health care system totaled $661.5 million in fiscal year 2023, and paid for half of the Georgia Department of Public Health’s operating budget of $769.9 million in that same time frame.

RFK Jr. has criticized ultra-processed foods and food additives, and has called for barring drug companies from television advertising. He wants to overhaul dietary guidelines to address obesity and diabetes, and has repeated incorrect information on vaccine safety.

CDC Chamblee’s work could align with RFK’s agenda because its research has detailed the presence of glyphosate in food and man-made chemicals in Americans’ bodies. They also identified toxic exposures from vaping, created quality control standards for tests for genetic diseases in newborns and have demonstrated how macronutrients work, Monroe said.

Scientists at the facility feel attacked and under siege, said Dr. Anthony Fiore, a retired member of the CDC’s U.S. Public Health Service. He says researchers are leaving so abruptly that they can’t even organize their files before being locked out of their computers and the building.

“We understand that administrations have differing priorities,” he said. “But what we are seeing at the CDC is chaos, and that’s not efficient.”

Last month, the Trump administration’s Department of Government Efficiency fired 1,000 employees at CDC, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported. The firings affected employees across the board, including those with excellent performance evaluations, the AJC has previously reported.

Fiore and colleagues had been protesting at the CDC’s headquarters on Clifton Road in Atlanta the previous four Tuesdays.

“But we realized a lot of the CDC’s work on opioid usage and other causes of death takes places at Chamblee, so we are here” today, Fiore said. “I think people would miss these services if they were gone.”

The cuts are part of the Trump administration’s plan to reduce the size of government, which has included firing probationary employees across multiple federal agencies. On Tuesday, the Trump administration said it was considering cutting still another part of the CDC, its HIV prevention division, NBC News reported.

With a budget of $1.3 billion, the CDC’s Division of HIV Prevention tracks new infections across the United States, promotes testing and makes available HIV prevention medications, also known as PrEP. Atlanta, Miami and Memphis, Tennessee, have the nation’s highest rates of new HIV infections, the AJC reported.

As the AJC has reported, over the last decade, congressional Republicans and the National Rifle Association have accused the CDC of straying from its original mission when, in the 1990s, it began conducting research into deaths and injuries caused to Americans by firearms. The research also occurs in Chamblee at the CDC’s Injury Center.

The compromise previous administrations settled on was that the CDC could research gun deaths in the U.S., but not issue any policy recommendations that could result in stricter gun laws.

Still, Monroe said the NRA insisted that none of the CDC Injury Center’s budget be used to conduct research on gun injury or death.

“We felt we needed to have this data to understand what was happening,” Monroe said. “From collecting this data, CDC were able to learn that most gun deaths are suicides, and in fact most people who die by suicide are older white men. We wouldn’t have known any of this without the data.”

The CDC’s work on norovirus, the leading cause of vomiting, diarrhea and foodborne illness in the United States, helped make the nation’s food supply safer, Monroe added.

In fiscal 2023, the CDC funded 480 projects in Georgia. A majority of CDC funding goes directly to state and local health departments and programs.

CDC Research:

— Gave policymakers data on chronic diseases such as heart disease, cancer and mortality.

— Detailed presence of potentially harmful glyphosate, forever chemicals (Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS) and other toxins in water, air and landfills.

— Created quality control standards to test for genetic diseases in newborns.

— Created test to screen for phenylketonuria in newborns to inform parents that a child should avoid the artificial sweetener Aspartame.

— Showed that efforts to reduce downtown traffic congestion in Atlanta during the Olympic Games resulted in significantly lower rates of childhood asthma events, which bolstered policymakers’ efforts to reduce air pollution and improve health via reductions in motor vehicle traffic.

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