CDC staff gather to honor ‘the people who protect America’ after leaders who resigned were escorted out of agency

(CNN) — Top officials who resigned their positions at the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention after the ouster of the agency’s director were escorted out of the building Thursday morning.

Amid abrupt changes that have left the CDC leaderless, agency staff had been planning a show of respect called a “clap out” Thursday afternoon for the officials who resigned, including Dr. Deb Houry, the chief medical officer; Dr. Demetre Daskalakis, chief of vaccines and respiratory diseases; Dr. Daniel Jernigan, director of the National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases; and data chief Dr. Jennifer Layden.

Instead, the officials were escorted out of the building, according to Houry, who stressed that they were escorted out “by friends.”

Staffers still gathered outside