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Published: August 10, 2025
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In Healthbeat, Dr. Jay Varma reflects on the August 2025 shooting at CDC headquarters in Atlanta, framing it as both a tragedy and a grim inevitability after years of escalating hostility toward public health workers. Drawing on his own experiences during COVID-19 and in clinical care, Varma describes how public health professionals now face the stark choices of running from the field, hiding their work, or fighting back to defend science and health. He calls for a renewed, grassroots movement to rebuild trust in public health and to remind communities that its mission is simple but vital: “We’re here for you. We’re going to protect you.”
A Tragedy That Felt All Too Predictable
When bullets struck the CDC headquarters in Atlanta and a police officer was killed, many current and former public health workers felt shock but not surprise. As Dr. Jay Varma writes, the attack was the culmination of years of threats, misinformation, and vilification directed at public health agencies and their staff.
From Shared Values to Demonization
During his 20 years at CDC and in global health, Varma witnessed a universal ethic: a shared commitment to helping people live safer, healthier, and longer lives. Even when disagreements flared over methods or policy, that core principle held steady. But COVID-19 marked a turning point. Instead of rallying behind public health as society’s invisible shield, critics painted health measures as authoritarian overreach. Conspiracy theories, political attacks, and personal threats have followed ever since.
“We need to share our personal stories and our values. We need to remind people that our work is to promote health and longevity.” —Dr. Jay Varma
The Toll of Constant Threats
Varma recalls being harassed in public during the pandemic, including one man shouting that he hoped Varma’s children would die of COVID. The threats have not abated. Just two months before the CDC shooting, Varma himself received a death threat by email. Meanwhile, public health staff nationwide face burnout and fear: obscuring their employer at social gatherings, removing CDC decals from their cars, and even asking whether to stop wearing their Public Health Service uniforms in public.
Run. Hide. Fight.
The CDC’s emergency alert system delivered the same stark message taught in all active shooter drills: Run. Hide. Fight.
- Many have chosen to run: Public health vacancies remain high, with local officers resigning en masse.
- Others hide: concealing their profession in social settings or downplaying their roles in vaccination or disease control.
- But Varma argues the only sustainable option is to fight: to organize, to advocate, and to remind the public that public health is public safety.
Fighting Back to Protect the Future
Efforts like Defending Public Health, a new advocacy group, are training health professionals to speak out in communities, on social media, and with policymakers. Alumni networks are pushing back on funding cuts and policy rollbacks. Varma calls for public health leaders to tell personal stories, engage openly, and persistently send the same message: public health is here to protect communities, not control them.
📅 Publication Date & Outlet
August 10, 2025 | Healthbeat (Guest Essay by Dr. Jay K. Varma)
