After withdrawing its nomination for Dave Weldon last week, the Trump administration is now reportedly considering Texas Republican Michael Burgess to head the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
A previously postponed meeting of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s vaccine advisory panel has been rescheduled to April, according to several media reports on Thursday.
The CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) was initially scheduled to meet on Feb. 27 to discuss updated vaccination recommendations, but the panel was postponed just days beforehand, days after new Health and Human Services (HHS) secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr was confirmed. At the time, HHS said that pushing back the meeting would “accommodate public comment.”
Now, according to reporting from Reuters, which cited an HHS spokesperson, the vaccine experts will convene on April 15 and 16. The CDC has yet to release a full meeting program, though the spokesperson revealed that measles will be on the agenda. The U.S. is currently in the midst of a measles outbreak that has so far infected hundreds and killed two—the first measles-related deaths in the U.S. since 2015.
The ACIP shakeup is just one of the recent high-level upsets at the CDC. Last week, for instance, the Trump administration pulled its nomination of Dave Weldon for director of the agency. According to Axios, which cited an anonymous source close to the Senate’s health committee, Weldon’s withdrawal was likely linked to his vaccine criticism.
On Thursday, news reports indicated that Trump may be eyeing former U.S. Representative Michael Burgess, a Republican from Texas who is also a physician, as Weldon’s replacement. According to reporting from Reuters, Burgess retired from Congress in January after serving for 22 years. He had previously championed vaccines to fellow House members during the COVID-19 pandemic, noting the need to address hesitancy and skepticism in the country.
Citing a source familiar with the matter, Reuters reported that Burgess would likely be Trump’s next nominee, though the President has not yet arrived at a final decision.
Vaccines have become a particularly heated flashpoint in the U.S. Kennedy, a vocal and prominent vaccine skeptic, was confirmed in February as HHS Secretary despite strong pushback from senators during his two-day confirmation hearings. Senator Maggie Hassan (D-NH), for instance, said that Kennedy’s confirmation would be “too much of a risk for our country,” noting that “there is no reason that any of us should believe that you have reversed the anti-vaccine views that you have promoted for 25 years.”
Senator Bill Cassidy (R-LA), a physician, likewise took issue with Kennedy’s vaccine criticism, raising concerns that it could put patients at risk of preventable diseases and complications. Cassidy ultimately voted along party lines to confirm Kennedy.
