“It’s been a struggle to process what happened at the CDC just a few days ago. The facts are coming in: one officer died, 500 rounds fired, 200 bullets made contact with 6 CDC buildings, hundreds of staff sheltered in place for hours. The intention is undeniable: this was an attempted massacre.”

This was the opening of an August 13 Substack column and video discussing the deafening silence after the deadly attack last week on the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, a joint effort by resident physician Kristein Panthagan, emergency physician Megan Ranny (also Dean of Yale School of Public Health) and epidemiologist Kateyn Jetelina of Your Local Epidemiologist.

“The state of the world feels unrecognizable,” they wrote. “We are living headline to headline, tragedy to tragedy…Our world is swallowed whole by the endless churn of violence and crisis we’ve come to accept as ordinary. We are drowning in the abnormal…”

In a LinkedIn post, Jeletina wrote: “As horrific as it was to have 500 bullets fired toward the CDC, what’s been equally painful is what followed (or rather, what didn’t). The silence. The indifference. It’s been deafening. Especially after all that public health has given over the past six years.”

The three have called on readers for a response – and they obliged.  On LinkedIn, Jeletina wrote: “This week, Your Local Epidemiologist readers sent me more than 300 letters, emails, and notes for public health employees – messages of support, gratitude, and solidarity. My team compiled them into a PDF, and this morning I had the privilege of delivering it to CDC staff.”

“To public health workers everywhere: You are heroes. Your work may not always be visible. But its impact is undeniable. I hope these messages help close out this terrible week with a measure of hope and perhaps lift spirits, even just a little.”