Last Friday, a gunman shot at the Atlanta headquarters of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, killing a police officer. One aspect of the incident that got a lot of attention — and is a cautionary tale for crisis communicators — is that, in the wake of the shooting, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who oversees the CDC, went fishing.

The optics of that are very bad. Depending on the seriousness of a crisis, activities that could be seen as taking the crisis lightly should be rethought and postponed or canceled. Think of a CEO going on vacation the day after the company has a serious facility fire. It sends the wrong message. We often counsel companies to suspend marketing campaigns that might come off as insensitive when a crisis hits.

The Aug. 8 shooting, in addition to the tragedy of the fallen officer, was disturbing to the CDC staff, who were in lockdown among shattered windows and bullet holes in walls. Yet the next day, Kennedy (pictured), who as secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services has the CDC as part of his bailiwick, posted on X pictures of himself standing in the Kenae River in Alaska holding a fish.

“Fishing the Kenae with Ninilchik Chief Ivan Encelewski Chairman of the Cook Inlet Tribal Council and Council President Gloria Oneil,” he (or an assistant) wrote above the pics.

Shooter Motivation

Another part of the story is that the shooter was apparently motivated by what he saw as his COVID-19 vaccination causing his depression and suicidal thoughts. Kennedy has also expressed (to say the least) skepticism about vaccinations. Just days before the shooting, he announced he was pulling $500 million in funding for research on mRNA vaccinations, which are used for viruses like COVID-19 and the flu.

A lot of the press coverage of the shooting mentioned the vaccine connection. A group of laid-off CDC workers called Fired But Fighting put a statement on its website in which it said, “Kennedy is directly responsible for the villainization of CDC’s workforce through his continuous lies about science and vaccine safety, which have fueled a climate of hostility and mistrust.” The group called for Kennedy to resign. The suspense built as to how he would respond to the incident.

He eventually did put out a statement, but, as many outlets noted, it came 30 minutes after he posted his fishing pics (not good optics or crisis communications). The statement didn’t say anything about vaccines. “We are deeply saddened by the tragic shooting at CDC’s Atlanta campus that took the life of officer David Rose,” he wrote on X.

Shaken Workers

The rest of the post was a tribute to CDC workers. “We know how shaken our public health colleagues feel today,” he wrote, for example. “No one should face violence while working to protect the health of others.”

HHS put out a press release Monday noting that Kennedy had visited the CDC HQ that day. Still, the department was feeling a little defensive. The AP reported that, in a statement Monday, HHS Communications Director Andrew Nixon said Kennedy “has unequivocally condemned the horrific attack and remains fully committed to ensuring the safety and well-being of CDC employees.”

Okay, but it wasn’t a time to go fishing.

Photo Credit: Ringo Chiu/Shutterstock

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