More than 100 demonstrators gathered Tuesday in front of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Clifton Road, displaying a mix of outrage about mass firings at the CDC and sadness about their country’s leadership.
“The cuts that were announced today just outraged me,” said protester Lawrie Demorest, a retired lawyer who lives in Atlanta’s Morningside neighborhood. “In all my decades, I’ve never been so afraid for our country.”
The firings began Tuesday for employees across the entire U.S. Health and Human Services Department, of which the CDC is a part. The effort is expected to eventually mean job losses for 10,000 people — about 2,400 within the CDC. The plan would consolidate agencies that oversee billions of dollars for addiction services and community health centers under a new office called the Administration for a Healthy America.
Demorest and dozens of other protesters gathered late Tuesday afternoon on all corners of the intersection of Clifton Road and CDC Parkway, holding signs that said: “Make America Sane Again,” “RFK Go Away” and “CDC Staff are Heroes.” One woman pounded a drum, a man rang a French cow bell, and passing drivers honked steadily to show their support.
Demorest said she used to think of America as a nation that other countries admired — but not anymore.
“I’m starting to look to Canada to play the role that I always thought that we played — social safety net, taking care of other people," Demorest said, adding that President Donald Trump is “cutting services to people who need them in order to give tax breaks to the most wealthy people in the world.”
Credit: Ben Hendren
Credit: Ben Hendren
Dr. Tony Fiore, an epidemiologist who retired from the CDC in 2021, said Tuesday’s demonstration was one of about seven that have been held outside the CDC in as many weeks. They aim to support employees facing “constant uncertainty about what is going to happen to their jobs — and even, probably, more important to them — their projects and programs.”
“Right now, we’re really as much concerned about the impact of all these personnel and funding cuts on public health writ large in the entire U.S.,” he said.
“The CDC is kind of at the center of coordinating responses to outbreaks, doing surveillance for diseases, doing advanced laboratory testing for rare diseases,” Fiore said. “And we’re constantly working with the state and local health departments.”
Ella Johannaber, a 66-year-old therapeutic coach and wellness educator who lives in Decatur, was holding a sign thanking “CDC Public Servants.” She said she knows many young people who want to create a society “where Americans are healthier and stronger — that we as a country can face health issues.“
“I just admire CDC public servants so much,” she said.
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