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By Shane Croucher
Senior Editor
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The White House will pull its nomination of Dave Weldon to be director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Axios reported. The publication cited a source close to the Senate health committee and another source familiar with the matter.
Weldon, 71, is a former Republican congressman from Florida and a doctor. His views on vaccines and autism have drawn scrutiny in recent weeks. He was facing a Senate confirmation hearing on Thursday.
One of the sources told Axios that HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy said Weldon wasn't ready. Bloomberg, Reuters and others also later reported the withdrawal of Weldon's nomination, citing White House officials.
Read More on Politics
Newsweek has asked HHS for comment via an online form.
Weldon: 'I Believe in Vaccination'
He was considered to be closely aligned with his presumptive boss, Kennedy Jr., who for years has been one of the nation's leading anti-vaccine activists.
"I've been described as anti-vaccine," Weldon told the New York Times in a November interview, but added: "I give shots. I believe in vaccination."
Weldon was a leader of a Congressional push for research into autism's causes, which began around 2000.
It was fueled by a criticized—and ultimately discredited—study by British researcher Dr. Andrew Wakefield that claimed to find a link between the measles-mumps-rubella vaccine and autism.
Weldon rejected studies that found no causal link between childhood vaccines and autism, and accused the CDC of short-circuiting research that might show otherwise.
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Weldon's Background
Weldon has no experience in federal public heath, but that isn't unusual. The last few presidential administrations—both Democratic and Republican—have appointed outsiders with no CDC experience.
Unlike Weldon, however, those outsiders had been public health researchers or had run state health departments.
He is an Army veteran and internal medicine doctor whose main claim to fame was representing a central Florida district in Congress from 1995 to 2009.
After he left Congress, Weldon practiced medicine in Florida, taught at the Florida Institute of Technology, served as board chairman for the Israel Allies Foundation and made unsuccessful runs at federal and state elected office.
What People Are Saying
When announcing the nomination, President Donald Trump said Weldon "will proudly restore the CDC to its true purpose, and will work to end the Chronic Disease Epidemic, and Make America Healthy Again!"
Dr. Anne Schuchat worked at the CDC for 33 years before retiring in 2021, and twice served as acting director. She said she doesn't know Weldon, but that agency directors gradually develop an appreciation and respect for its work.
His Capitol Hill experience could help CDC secure funding and political support, she said, before the news of his withdrawal.
"With an optimistic view, there's lot you can build on, with what he has on paper," she said. "With a pessimistic view, if he wants the job to tear the place down, that would be disappointing—and dangerous."
"When you withhold vaccination, you're doing nothing to reduce the chance your child will be diagnosed with autism, but you are absolutely increasing the chance that they will contract a preventable disease and possibly die," Alison Singer, co-founder and president of the Autism Science Foundation, told Bloomberg.
What's Next
The search for a new CDC director continues.
This article includes reporting by The Associated Press.
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