Scoop: White House pulls CDC director nomination
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Former Rep. Dave Weldon. Photo: Joe Raedle/Getty Images
The White House is withdrawing the nomination of Dave Weldon to be the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), per a source close to Senate health committee and another source familiar.
Why it matters: The former Florida congressman was scheduled to appear before the committee this morning for a since-cancelled confirmation hearing. But his views questioning certain vaccines have garnered attention since he was nominated months ago and were sure to play a prominent role in questioning.
- HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. himself said Weldon wasn't ready, per one of the sources.
Background: Weldon is an internal medicine doctor who served in the House of Representatives from 1995 through 2009. While in Congress, he was one of the sponsors of a bill that would have banned mercury from vaccines.
- In a 2007 statement on a different bill he sponsored, Weldon wrote that "legitimate questions persist regarding the possible association between the mercury-based preservative, thimerosal, and the childhood epidemic of neurodevelopmental disorders (NDDs), including autism."
- Thimerosal has been used as a preservative in vaccines, although it was taken out of childhood vaccines in 2001, per the CDC. Many studies have found no evidence of harm of thimerosal in low doses in vaccines.
- Studies have also found no evidence of a connection between vaccines and autism.
Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.) said Weldon repeated debunked claims about vaccines in a meeting they had last month. She called on the administration to pick a nominee "who at bare minimum believes in basic science and will help lead CDC's important work to monitor and prevent deadly outbreaks."
