President Donald Trump is withdrawing his nomination of a former congressman to helm the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Dr. Dave Weldon, 71, is no longer under consideration to take the post of director of the CDC, a source familiar with the situation told The Epoch Times on March 13.
Weldon had been scheduled to appear before the Senate Health Committee on Thursday to answer questions as senators prepared to vote on the nomination. The panel lists the hearing as canceled. A spokesperson for the committee did not return an inquiry.
After canceling Weldon’s appearance, the panel voted to advance Trump’s nominees to head the Food and Drug Administration and the National Institutes of Health, two other divisions within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The vote to advance Dr. Marty Makary, Trump’s nominee to direct the Food and Drug Administration, was 14–9. The vote to advance Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, Trump’s nominee to head the National Institutes of Health, was 12–11.
Republicans control the Senate. The party chairs each committee and has at least one more member than Democrats on each panel. A simple majority is sufficient to advance nominees and, when the full Senate votes, to confirm nominees.
The CDC is the nation’s health protection agency. It has about 12,600 staff members.
Weldon is a U.S. Army veteran who represented Florida in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1995 to 2009. Weldon chose to retire rather than run for another term.
A bid for a U.S. Senate seat in 2012 fell short in the Republican primary.
Weldon, who has not commented on the withdrawal, was a critic of the CDC while in Congress. He noted the CDC oversees vaccine safety while also promoting vaccination and introduced legislation that would have created a new, independent agency to monitor the safety of vaccines.
Weldon said during a 2002 hearing on vaccines and autism that he would “never be satisfied that there isn’t some data suggesting that some children may have serious side effects,” including potentially autism, without more transparency.
Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has also said that autism is likely being caused in part by vaccines.
The CDC says on its website that studies have found “no link between receiving vaccines and developing autism.”
