Mass walkout staged at CDC in solidarity with officials who resigned in protest

Staff members at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention headquarters in Atlanta, Georgia, on Thursday staged a mass walkout in a show of support for three top officials who resigned in protest this week.

The three officials in question—Demetre Daskalakis, Daniel Jernigan, and Debra Houry—resigned on Wednesday night to protest the ouster of former Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Susan Monarez, who had just been confirmed weeks ago by the U.S. Senate.

All three officials came to the CDC headquarters to clear out their offices and, as they left the building on Thursday afternoon, were followed out by hundreds of workers who cheered them and thanked them for their work at the agency.

Marissa Sarbak, a reporter with NBC Atlanta, posted a video showing the crowds that had gathered to support the departing officials.

Sam Stein, a journalist at The Bulwark, reported that Houry gave a short speech outside the building in which she warned that the agency was in danger of falling apart and that more resignations would be coming soon unless drastic changes were made.

"We need Congress to intervene," she emphasized.

Jernigan, who until Wednesday has served as the director of the CDC's National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases, told The Washington Post that his "last straw" was being forced to work with David Geier, who has long pushed false theories linking childhood vaccinations to autism.

"The current administration has made it very difficult for me to stay," said Jernigan, who has nearly two decades of experience working at the CDC. "We have been asked to revise and to review and change studies that have been settled in the past, scientific findings that were there to help guide vaccine decisions."

Monarez was reportedly pushed out by Health Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who, like Geier, has also in the past pushed conspiracy theories linking vaccines to autism.

Kennedy's decision to oust Monarez has drawn bipartisan concern. Sens. Patty Murray (D-Wash.) and Tina Smith (D-Minn.) have both called on President Donald Trump to fire Kennedy, while Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.) called for HHS to postpone its scheduled Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices meeting, given what he described as "serious allegations" that have been made by the resigned CDC officials.