White House officials and executive officials said the White House decided to withdraw Pick’s nomination to lead the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention just hours before Dr. Dave Weldon, a former senator at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, appeared at the Senate confirmation hearing.
Officials who spoke on condition of anonymity to disclose the decision did not provide an explanation. However, it was revealed to the White House that Dr. Weldon has not been confirmed to vote in the full Senate, and in an interview Dr. Weldon said in an interview he learned of last night’s decision.
Dr. Weldon, 71, was to appear before the Senate Health Committee at 10am Thursday, but the agency director was the first to be part of the confirmation process. The decision to withdraw the appointment was first reported by Axios.
His hearing is expected to take place amid a major outbreak of measles in Texas and New Mexico, infecting more than 250 people and claiming two lives. The flu season led to record numbers of hospitalizations. And the possibility of avian flu outbreak.
He repeatedly questioned the safety of the measles vaccine and criticised the CDC for not doing enough to prove the vaccine was safe.
Dr. Weldon pushed while in Congress Move the Vaccine Safety Bureau Away from CDC control, agents say there is a conflict of interest as they also purchase and promote vaccines. He is also a solid opponent of abortion.
Dr. Weldon was probably the least known of the men appointed to lead major agencies in the Department of Health and Human Services. But he was most closely aligned with the country’s new health secretary, Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
Dr. Weldon and Kennedy have been in a 25-year relationship. The Health Secretary cited Dr. Weldon’s criticism of the CDC and his own criticism.
Dr. Weldon served in the Legislature for 14 years from 1995 to 2009. His signature legislative achievement was Weldon’s amendment; Health agencies prohibit discrimination for hospitals or health insurance plans that have chosen not to provide or pay an abortion.
Like Kennedy, he questioned the need to exempt children for hepatitis B, which he described as suffering primarily among adults with sexually transmitted diseases.
He also argued that abstinence is the most effective way to control sexually transmitted diseases. Cases have skyrocketed in recent years, only beginning to show signs of a possible recession in 2023.
In an interview with the New York Times in late November, Dr. Weldon said he had worked “to drive mercury out of the vaccines of his childhood” but described himself as a vaccination advocate.
Both his adult children have been fully vaccinated, he said. As a doctor on the coast of Florida, he prescribes patients thousands of doses of flu and other vaccines.
“I’m called an anti-vaccine,” Dr. Weldon said, but added: I believe in vaccinations. ”
Members of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions also questioned Mr. Kennedy (who later supported) and Dr. Jayanta Bhatacharya, the respective candidates who lead the National Institutes of Health and the Food and Drug Administration, and their respective candidates, Dr. Marty McCurry.
(A hearing for Dr. Mehmet Oz, a candidate who runs the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, is scheduled for Friday.)
Apart from a handful of tough questions from Sen. Bill Cassidy, a Louisiana Republican, comments from members have fallen largely along partisan boundaries. Dr. Weldon’s hearing was not expected to be different.
