The White House is leading the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, pulling President Donald Trump’s candidate, the Senate Health Committee confirmed Thursday.
The move has been set up by a former Republican Florida State Senate vaccine critic to appear on the U.S. Senate Senate Committee for a confirmation hearing. The panel said the hearing, which was scheduled for 10am, had been cancelled.
Axios first reported its decision on Thursday. Robert F. Kennedy Jr., head of the Department of Health and Human Services, said Weldon was not ready for the role, Axios reported. HHS oversees the CDC and all other federal health agencies.
Weldon said he was excited to work with Kennedy and serve the country again, The New York Times reported Thursday.
“That’s a shock, but in a way, it’s a relief,” Weldon told the paper. “The work of government demands you a lot. If God doesn’t want me in it, then I’m fine with that.”
He said, “If I get on the plane at 11am, I’ll go home.”
“I’ll make more money to stay in my medical practice,” Weldon added.
But Weldon’s view is in close agreement with Kennedy, the infamous vaccine skeptic. Weldon, 71, has long questioned the safety of certain vaccines, promoting false claims that link the vaccine to autism. In 2006, Weldon appeared with parents who claimed that the CDC had concealed evidence linking the vaccine to children with autistic children.
The CDC reportedly will reconsider its link under Kennedy, despite decades of research exposing it.
While in Congress, Weldon sponsored a bill that would transfer responsibility for vaccine safety away from the CDC. He argued that there was a conflict of interest with the agency to purchase and promote the vaccine. The bill never did past committees.
Weldon is an internist who served in Parliament for 14 years from 1995 to 2009.
Sen. Patty Murray, a Democrat from Washington and a member of the committee, said that Weldon’s false claims about the vaccine were “deeply disturbed.”
In a statement Thursday, Murray said: “I have little confidence in doing so in the Trump administration, but they need to immediately nominate someone for this position.
She added that Kennedy has already “immense damage by spreading lies and disinformation as America’s top health authorities.”
HHS did not immediately respond to requests to comment on why the administration drew Weldon’s nomination and why Trump might choose another person for the post.
