On Aug. 8 at 4:50 pm, 30-year-old Patrick Joseph White opened fire on the CDC’s Roybal Campus, less than three miles from Paideia, shooting multiple CDC buildings and breaking almost 150 “bullet-proof” windows. White shot and killed a local police officer, 33-year-old David Rose, before barricading himself in a nearby CVS and dying in what officials believe to be a suicide. Although no CDC staff were physically injured, many are still feeling the psychological effects of the traumatizing experience.
Max Sakal ’28, whose mother works at the CDC, said the attack highlighted how political misinformation is fueling real-world violence. “This guy did what he did because of COVID. We live in a society where people are being told to hate vaccines and the people who make them.”
White’s father has confirmed that White had a history of mental health disorders, including schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. He lacked therapy and support, and instead blamed the COVID-19 vaccine and the CDC for his depression and poor mental health.
Signers of an open letter written by 740 current and former Department of Health and Humans Services employees, including almost 400 current CDC staff members, accused Secretary of the Department Robert F. Kennedy Jr. of creating and giving power to the hostile environment that fueled White by spreading skepticism and undermining public trust in government health institutions. This is called stochastic terrorism: repeated misinformation leading to violence. Stochastic terrorism has been on the rise in the United States, many crediting the Trump administration for creating a hostile environment.
