White House withdraws nomination of Dave Weldon as CDC Director

The White House has pulled the nomination of former House of Representatives member Dave Weldon, a Republican from Florida, as the next director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) just hours before he was set to appear for his Senate confirmation hearing. Weldon’s nomination was rescinded early this morning, ahead of his scheduled testimony before the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee. The announcement was first reported by Axios, citing sources on Capitol Hill.

While the reasons for the withdrawal have not been publicly clarified, sources close to the Senate committee suggest that Weldon lacked sufficient support to secure confirmation. Senate HELP Committee Chairman Bill Cassidy, a Republican from Louisiana, was reportedly preparing for the hearing, but it became apparent that Weldon would not have enough votes to move the nomination forward.

Concerns about Weldon’s views on vaccine safety played a significant role in the situation. The former congressman has long been associated with anti-vaccine rhetoric, including making claims linking vaccines to autism, a position that has been widely discredited by the scientific community. Like Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who faced similar scrutiny during his confirmation process as health secretary, Weldon’s stance on vaccine safety raised alarms among lawmakers.

During his 14-year tenure in the House of Representatives, Weldon was an outspoken critic of the CDC and questioned the safety of vaccines. He even introduced legislation in 2007 to move oversight of vaccine safety from the CDC to an independent agency within the Department of Health and Human Services.

Weldon also reportedly assisted anti-vaccine researchers, Mark and David Geier, in accessing sensitive CDC data, which had been documented in the 2004 book Evidence of Harm by journalist David Kirby.