About 150 people, including current and former Centers for Disease Control (CDC) employees, rallied against the Trump administration’s attacks on science, including mass-firings and funding freezes to public health agencies, on Saturday at the corner of 10th and Peachtree Streets in Midtown.
The Sound Science Saves Lives rally came a week after alleged gunman Patrick Joseph White opened fire on the CDC offices in Emory Pointe, killing a DeKalb police officer, David Rose. White subsequently died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound, authorities said.
Many rally-goers said they viewed the Aug. 8 shooting spree as a direct outcome of anti-vaccine and anti-science rhetoric from President Donald Trump, Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert Kennedy, Jr., and their allies.
“Science is under attack,” said State Sen. Josh McLaurin (D-Sandy Springs), a 2026 candidate for lieutenant governor. “The guy who just shot up the CDC – shooting over 500 rounds … He was motivated by disinformation and misinformation about vaccines, and he made that clear.” The shooter’s neighbors told law enforcement and media that he had an “obsession” with Covid-19 vaccine conspiracy theories.
McLaurin said the Trump administration is attacking science through both “direct illegal firings and impoundment of funds.” He also accused it of “stochastic terrorism,” a term for using mass communication to incite individuals to commit violent acts.
Dehumanizing rhetoric from White House officials is part of the problem, McLaurin said, citingOffice of Management and Budget Director Russell Vought saying last year that he wanted to put career civil servants “in trauma.”
“There’s a cause and an effect that happens when we demonize federal employees in this way,” McLaurin said.
“Politicians on both sides, they need to be talking to scientists, and they need to be humanizing them,” said Aryn Backus, a seven-year CDC health communications specialist until she was fired in February.
“We’re normal people. We’re your friends. We’re your neighbors,” said Backus, a co-founder of Fired but Fighting, formed by federal public health employees after Trump began slashing jobs at HHS and the CDC earlier this year.
State Sen. Jason Esteves (D-Atlanta), a 2026 gubernatorial hopeful, said Georgians must demand accountability from their state and local leaders. “Right now, state leaders in Georgia are silent — if anything, they cheerlead what’s happening out of Washington DC,” he said.
Esteves encouraged people to turn out to vote for the two Public Service Commission (PSC) races on the ballot in November. “Our Public Service Commission deals with energy policy, which is closely tied to science and our environment,” he said.
The Trump administration’s funding cuts to public health affect everyday Americans, because federal funds go to local health departments and basic services like testing drinking-water safety and lead levels in children’s blood, said former CDC scientist Patrick Breysse.
“The long-term effect of this is that American public health is going to suffer, and everyday people are going to be impacted by it,” said Breysse, who served as the CDC’s director of the National Center for Environmental Health and the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry from 2014 to 2022.
For Breysse, the difference between Trump’s first and second terms is that, “in the previous administration, we had to fight for our program. In this administration, we have to fight for our jobs and our life and respect for what we do.”
“They’re attacking the people, not just the science. That’s a tragedy, because these are people who have dedicated their lives to making the world a better place and our country a better place,” said Breysse. “It’s time to get angry. It’s time to demonstrate.”
