Dr. Dave Weldon, who served within the Home of Representatives from 1995 to 2009, is not a candidate to run the Facilities for Illness Management and Prevention. His nomination was withdrawn shortly earlier than a Senate affirmation listening to Thursday.
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Joe Raedle/Getty Photographs
The Facilities for Illness Management and Prevention should wait slightly longer for a brand new chief.
The White Home withdrew its nomination of Dr. Dave Weldon, a former Florida congressman, shortly earlier than his scheduled look earlier than the Senate Well being, Training, Labor and Pensions Committee on Thursday.
A White Home official not approved to talk publicly informed NPR that Weldon did not have the votes wanted for affirmation by the Senate.
President Trump introduced Weldon as his choose to guide the CDC on Reality Social in November, praising Weldon’s expertise as a medical physician, Military veteran, politician and household man.
Within the months since, Weldon’s document on vaccines has been scrutinized, together with debunked claims about vaccine security.
Sen. Patty Murray, a Democrat from Washington who sits on the well being committee, mentioned Weldon had made a few of these claims in a Feb. 20 assembly along with her.
“I used to be deeply disturbed to listen to Dr. Weldon repeat debunked claims about vaccines — it is harmful to place somebody in cost at CDC who believes the lie that our rigorously examined childhood vaccine schedule is someway exposing youngsters to poisonous ranges of mercury or inflicting autism,” she mentioned in an announcement launched in response to the withdrawal of Weldon’s nomination.
There have been additionally doubts about Weldon from a number of Republican members on the well being committee. Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski mentioned she raised her considerations about his views on vaccines with the White Home.
Weldon additionally mentioned in an announcement that Sen. Susan Collins of Maine and Sen. Invoice Cassidy of Louisiana had been prone to vote towards him.
The four-page assertion was printed by The Washington Submit and The New York Instances. NPR tried to achieve Weldon, however did not hear again.
Dr. Georges Benjamin, head of the American Public Well being Affiliation, says Weldon’s nomination was “doomed to failure” by a constellation of occasions.
Benjamin cited Weldon’s anti-vaccine historical past amid the creating measles outbreak and the chaos within the federal authorities, together with the CDC. “Dr. Weldon was not the fitting man for the job,” he mentioned.
Weldon, a Republican, represented a district in central Florida from 1995 to 2009. After his stint within the Home of Representatives, he ran unsuccessfully for the U.S. Senate in 2012 and the Florida Home of Representatives in 2024, however has in any other case saved largely out of the general public eye.
After his congressional profession, Weldon returned to observe as an inner drugs physician in Florida and just lately held management positions at Privia High quality Community Central Florida, an organization that helps doctor practices. He was additionally board chairman for the pro-Israel advocacy group Israel Allies Basis, in line with types he submitted to the U.S. Workplace of Authorities Ethics.