WASHINGTON >> The White House withdrew President Donald Trump’s nomination of former Republican congressman and vaccine critic Dave Weldon to serve as director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, a surprise move that came shortly before his scheduled Senate confirmation hearing today.
Weldon, a physician who has criticized vaccines, said in a four-page statement he sent to Reuters that he had been informed 12 hours before the hearing by the White House that there were not enough votes for confirmation.
The CDC director would lead the response to public health threats including the growing measles cases in the U.S., especially the outbreak in West Texas and New Mexico that has killed two people, and play a critical role in tackling the spread of bird flu.
Weldon is the first Trump nominee withdrawn from consideration. The Republican-majority Senate confirmed unconventional picks including anti-vaccine activist Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as Secretary of Health and Human Services, former Fox News host Pete Hegseth for Defense Secretary and Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, who had been critical of U.S. intelligence efforts.
The Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee confirmed that Weldon’s nomination hearing had been canceled.
Weldon in his letter denied that he was anti-vaccine and said he believed U.S. senators including Republicans Susan Collins of Maine and HELP Committee Chairman Bill Cassidy of Louisiana planned to vote against him.
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Cassidy said he was not behind the withdrawal.
“I was looking forward to the hearing. I was surprised when Dr. Weldon’s nomination was withdrawn,” he said. “His poor response to this situation shows that the pressures of being CDC director would have been too much.”
Collins told reporters that she had reservations about Weldon but that she had not decided how she would vote.
The HELP committee this morning voted to advance the nominations to the full Senate of Dr. Jayanta Bhattacharya as Director of the National Institutes of Health and Dr. Martin Makary as Commissioner of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
Weldon would have reported to Kennedy, who since his confirmation has made misleading comments on the role of measles vaccines and treatments.
In an interview early this week with Fox News host Sean Hannity, Kennedy downplayed the safety of the measles vaccine and suggested that natural immunity from a measles infection would provide better and longer-lasting protection. Vaccination is the best way to prevent and stop the spread of the highly contagious disease that can be most serious for young children, according to public health experts.
Weldon’s withdrawal was first reported by the Axios news outlet.
‘CRITICAL MOMENT’
Cassidy, a doctor who had expressed wariness about Kennedy’s anti-vaccine views but ultimately cleared the path for his confirmation, today said the nation is at a “critical moment in public health.”
“While the COVID-19 pandemic has ended, the loss of trust in public health and science agencies remains. This comes as the nation faces serious health threats like a measles outbreak, which has already claimed at least one life and hospitalized many more,” Cassidy said.
The Atlanta-based CDC, with an annual budget of $17.3 billion, tracks and responds to domestic and foreign threats to public health. Roughly two-thirds of its budget provides funds to the public health and prevention activities of state and local health agencies.
While in Congress, Weldon challenged studies demonstrating the safety of childhood vaccines, asserting they were harmful and linked with autism, a theory espoused by longtime vaccine skeptic Kennedy but debunked by scientists. Reuters has reported that the CDC does plan to study autism and vaccines.
Also on the CDC agenda will be bird flu, which has decimated poultry flocks, infiltrated dairy herds and infected 70 people in the United States, resulting in one death.
Although the risk of bird flu to the general public remains low, the risk to people in contact with infected animals or surfaces is moderate to high, according to the CDC’s latest risk assessment.
Shares of vaccine makers initially rose after the withdrawal became public, but gave back most of those gains. Moderna shares, which had been up more than 5%, were about flat, as were Novavax shares. Pfizer was up less than 1% on another down day for the broader market.
Additional reporting by Michael Erman in New York, Bo Erickson in Washington and Manas Mishra in Bengaluru.
