The hearing, held by the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee – which voted Thursday to advance the nominations of Trump’s picks to lead two other health agencies, the US Food and Drug Administration and the National Institutes of Health – was abruptly cancelled.
In the past, the CDC director has been appointed to lead the office, but the nominee will require approval by the Senate starting this year.
Trump officials had privately voiced concerns about Weldon’s recent comments expressing skepticism about vaccines. Even US Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who has a long history of questioning vaccines, had concerns, the sources said.
Weldon also said in the statement, which was first reported by CBS, that Kennedy was “very upset” about the withdrawal.
Health experts had sharply criticized Weldon’s nomination to lead the nation’s key public health agency since it was announced last year. Weldon served 14 years in Congress, representing a district near Tampa from 1995 to 2009, and had introduced legislation that would have shifted vaccine safety oversight away from the CDC. He also repeatedly raised questions about the safety of vaccines that had already been studied.
In his statement, Weldon said some Republican senators had expressed reservations about his nomination, claiming that in a meeting with Republican staffers this week, those from Maine Sen. Susan Collins’ office “repeatedly accused me of being ‘antivax,’ even though I reminded them that I actually give hundreds of vaccines every year in my medical practice.”
“More than 20 years ago, while in Congress, I raised some concerns about childhood vaccine safety, and for some reason Collins staff suddenly couldn’t get over that no matter what I said back,” Weldon said.
Collins’ office didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. A source familiar with the meeting said that Weldon’s representation of the interaction was inaccurate and that Collins’ staff had actually been asking Weldon how he’d respond to questions about the perception that he’s anti-vaccine.
Weldon also displayed a lack of knowledge of basic facts about the CDC in the Tuesday meeting, including all the authorities of the CDC director, according to the source, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the meeting happened behind closed doors. Weldon said at the meeting that he had not developed a strategic plan for the CDC and intended to learn on the job if he was confirmed, the person said.
Weldon still questions vaccine safety
Weldon said in his statement Thursday that Sen. Bill Cassidy, a Republican from Louisiana who chairs the HELP Committee, “was also throwing around the claim that I was ‘antivax’ or that I believed that vaccines cause autism which I have never said.”
Robust scientific studies have repeatedly debunked any link between vaccines and autism. Autism rates have been rising, reaching 1 in 36 children by age 8 in 2020, but researchers say a key driver has been improvement in identifying and diagnosing autism.
Weldon also didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment on the 2019 interview.
But even in his own statement Thursday, as Weldon protested the perception of him as anti-vaccine, he cast doubt on CDC research that found a preservative previously used in vaccines, called thimerosal, showed no evidence of harm – though US health agencies agreed it should be removed in 1999 “as a precautionary measure.”
“If confirmed, I was planning on going back into the CDC database and quietly investigate this claim,” Weldon said in his statement. “Ironically, I was hoping to find no evidence of corruption of the science at CDC. Maybe in hearing it from me, members of the public might be reassured.”
Weldon also expressed support for Andrew Wakefield, the author of a discredited and retracted paper suggesting that the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine is connected to autism.
“The science does not support Dr. Weldon’s assertions,” said Dr. Walter Orenstein, a professor emeritus in the Emory School of Medicine who worked at the CDC for 26 years, including 16 as director of the US Immunization Program. “There have been numerous studies to look at the adverse impacts of thimerosal and measles-containing vaccines, and the conclusions have been that they do not cause autism.”
Weldon also claimed in his statement that Cassidy – a doctor who champions the safety and efficacy of vaccines and said he voted to confirm Kennedy only after being given guarantees that he wouldn’t upend childhood vaccinations in the US – had “asked that my nomination be withdrawn.”
A spokesperson from Cassidy’s office said the decision to pull Weldon’s nomination “did not come at the request of Senator Cassidy,” who the spokesperson said had been looking forward to Thursday’s hearing.
Weldon’s past raised questions
Weldon had long questioned the safety and efficacy of vaccines.
In 2007, Weldon introduced the Vaccine Safety and Public Confidence Assurance Act, which aimed to create an “Agency for Vaccine Safety Evaluation” within HHS, independent of the CDC. “The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is responsible for promoting both high immunization rates and vaccine safety, duties perceived by some to constitute a conflict of interest,” the legislation noted.
“It’s dangerous to put someone in charge at CDC who believes the lie that our rigorously tested childhood vaccine schedule is somehow exposing kids to toxic levels of mercury or causing autism,” Murray said in a statement.
Dr. Paul Offit, director of the Vaccine Education Center at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, recalled a run-in with Weldon during his time on the CDC’s Advisory Committee for Immunization Practices, a board of independent experts who advise the agency on how to use vaccines to control diseases.
He said Weldon “believed strongly that [the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine] was the cause of autism. And he believed … that if you separate that vaccine into its three component parts, that you can avoid autism, which, of course, is absurd, because already studies had shown that you were at no greater risk of autism if you’d gotten that vaccine or you hadn’t.”
Uncertainty about next nominee
It’s not clear whom the White House will nominate to lead the CDC. The acting director is Dr. Susan Monarez, a veteran of government service who was most recently the deputy director of ARPA-H, the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health, an agency tasked with doing innovative, high-stakes research.
After the withdrawal of Weldon’s nomination, some Democratic senators criticized Kennedy and his handling of the large ongoing measles outbreak in Texas, New Mexico and Oklahoma.
In a statement, Murray said Trump “should immediately nominate someone for this position who at bare minimum believes in basic science and will help lead CDC’s important work to monitor and prevent deadly outbreaks.”
Diane DeGette, a Democrat from Colorado, said in a statement, “You know it’s a problem when even Secretary Kennedy says you are not ready.” The next nominee, she said, “must be ready to protect and improve public health.”
“What is the difference between RFK Jr. and Dave Weldon?” Offit asked. “Why is one OK and the other or not?”