The White House is withdrawing the nomination of Dave Weldon for Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) director, as confirmed by Fox News Digital. On Thursday, Weldon was expected to have his confirmation hearing.
On Thursday morning, the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee stated it was canceling its hearing. However, it affirms that Congress would continue to vote on the nominations of Dr. Marty Makary as Commissioner of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and Dr. Jay Bhattacharya as Director of the National Institutes of Health (NIH).
A source said, “It became clear that the votes weren’t there in the Senate for him to get confirmed. This would have been a futile effort.” However, as of this time, there is no official reason for withdrawing the nomination.
Weldon, a medical doctor and Florida congressman, has made statements against vaccines in the past, which he could have been questioned about. In 2007, Weldon stated that there were “legitimate questions” about potential links between vaccines and childhood neurodevelopmental disorders, such as autism.
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Also, he presented legislation with former Rep. Carolyn Maloney, D-NY, that would have prohibited mercury from vaccines during his time in Congress.
The question about vaccine skepticism came up several times during the confirmation hearing for now-HHS Secretary RFK Jr., the Kennedy’s confirmation hearing. Kennedy’s claims linking vaccines to autism were frequently brought up by Democrats on the Senate HELP Committee.
They also asked about his tenure as chairman and chief litigation counsel of Children’s Health Defense, a nonprofit that has repeatedly sued the federal government and promoted anti-vaccine views.
