WASHINGTON: The White House on Thursday pulled its vaccine-skeptical nominee for director of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), David Weldon, a former congressman with a history of vaccine scepticism, just hours before his scheduled Senate confirmation hearing.
Weldon, a 71-year-old internal medicine doctor and former Florida representative, has previously expressed concerns over vaccine safety and supported debunked claims linking immunisation to autism.
His nomination had faced strong opposition from public health experts and lawmakers.
A spokesperson for the Senate Health, Education, Labour and Pensions (HELP) Committee announced the cancellation of Thursday’s hearing following the withdrawal.
“Following the withdrawal of the nomination of Dr David Weldon to be Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, today’s Senate HELP Committee hearing is cancelled,” the committee stated.
The withdrawal comes amid a growing measles outbreak in Texas and New Mexico, which has resulted in two deaths and over 250 infections, primarily among unvaccinated individuals.
Lack of Senate support
Weldon told The New York Times that he had been contacted by a White House official on Wednesday night who informed him that “they didn’t have the votes to confirm” his nomination.
His nomination was initially backed by US Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr, a long-time vaccine sceptic and a personal friend.
However, Axios which first reported the withdrawal, reported that Kennedy had also raised concerns about Weldon’s recent remarks expressing doubts about vaccines.
Controversial views on vaccines
As a Republican congressman, Weldon represented a Florida district from 1995 to 2009 and frequently questioned vaccine safety.
In 2007, he co-sponsored a bill proposing the creation of an independent vaccine safety office outside the CDC, citing a perceived “conflict of interest” within the agency.
He had also promoted concerns about thimerosal, a mercury-based preservative that was removed from most childhood vaccines in the US in 2001.
However, the CDC states that “there is no evidence of harm caused by the low doses of thimerosal in vaccines, except for minor reactions like redness and swelling at the injection site.”
His nomination had been met with bipartisan criticism. Senator Patty Murray, a Democrat from Washington, said this week that Weldon had repeated “debunked claims” about vaccines during a meeting last month.
Weldon responded to Murray’s remarks late on Wednesday, alleging that pharmaceutical companies had influenced opposition to his nomination.
“I assume she is like many other Republican and Democrat members of Congress—she too might be in the pocket of Big Pharma, which has been desperate to scuttle the nomination of Bobbie Kennedy at HHS and me at CDC,” he said.
