Former U.S. surgeon general on CDC shooting and vaccine research cuts

(CBS, KYMA/KECY) - Dr. Jerome Adams, former U.S. Surgeon General, spoke with Margaret Brennan Sunday on Face the Nation about a shooting outside the CDC headquarters in Atlanta which left a police officer in Georgia dead.

According to Brennan, at least four CDC buildings were shot at, and says investigators told her colleagues they are looking at motives, including the suspect, identified as 30-year-old Patrick Joseph White of Kennesaw, Georgia, believed to he was sick as a result of the COVID-19 vaccine.

When asked what he makes of the shooting, as well as "the broader impact on the health workers there on the grounds of the CDC," Dr. Adams said:

"On behalf of the American people, I want to say thank you to the dedicated professionals at the CDC and to all public health and medical workers across this country. And I also want to honor Officer David Rose who made the ultimate sacrifice while protecting those families and people who've worked at the CDC. My heartfelt condolences go out to his family, his friends and his colleagues...Violence is never the answer, no matter your level of frustration or anger with the system."

During the interview, Brennan and Adams talked about the Trump administration cutting $500 million in federal funding for mRNA vaccine research.

HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said mRNA vaccines "don't work against upper respiratory infections," prompting Brennan to ask Adams if he knows what Secretary Kennedy means, as well as ask what stopping research like this do for pandemic preparations, to which Adams said:

"That's simply not true. We know that by the most conservative estimates, over two-million lives have been saved because of mRNA technology. It helped us develop COVID-19 vaccines in record time. And it's, quite frankly, President Trump's greatest achievement. It's fascinating to me that in this conversation about whether he should receive the Nobel Prize for something, the thing that he should be considered for the Nobel Prize for, his health secretary is trying to undermine. For folks who may not be familiar, mRNA stands for messenger mRNA, it's a natural molecule that's in all of our bodies. It's like a recipe card that tells your body how to make a protein. And this idea, again, helps us develop vaccines and new treatments for everything from cancer, melanoma, which my wife has, to HIV, to better flu vaccines, and Zika. These are advances that are not going to happen now. People are going to die because we're cutting short funding for this technology."

To watch Brennan's full interview with Adams, click here.