As Marty Makary and Jay Bhattacharya sail through the Senate health committee vote, Weldon’s confirmation hearing is canceled. Guggenheim Partners heralded the last-minute move to revoke Dave Weldon’s nomination as “a positive sign for reigning in vaccine criticism.”
Hours before he was set to appear before a Senate committee, the Trump administration has pulled the nomination of Dave Weldon to run the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Axios reported. Meanwhile, Trump’s picks for the FDA and NIH passed out of committee and will head to a vote in the full Senate.
Weldon had been set to appear before the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee on Thursday morning but the hearing has now been cancelled, according to the committee’s website. The move was said to be in response to Weldon’s vaccine criticism, according to the Axios report.
In a Thursday note, Guggenheim Partners heralded the last-minute intervention as “a positive sign for reigning in vaccine criticism.”
“Our policy experts were skeptical on the confirmation of Dr. Dave Weldon given his vaccine views, his lower recent visibility, and questions on his independence from HHS Secretary RFK Jr,” Guggenheim wrote. “We view this positively as it relates to our vaccines coverage given his controversial views on vaccine safety and childhood vaccination and expect the move to provide some comfort in current vaccine and regulatory standards.”
A former U.S. House representative for Florida, Weldon has been criticized for his anti-vaccine views, particularly his continued suggestion of the link between vaccines and autism—a theory that has long been debunked by scientists.
As head of CDC, the medical doctor would have been in charge of overseeing public recommendations on the use of approved vaccines, including adult and childhood vaccine schedules. The CDC director reports in to the Secretary of HHS, which is Robert F. Kennedy, himself a long-time vaccine critic.
Already under Kennedy, the CDC has been directed to conduct a study into the disproven claim that vaccines are linked to autism, Reuters reported last week.
Weldon did say he’d tell lawmakers at today’s Senate hearing that he would recommend children be vaccinated for measles, a disease now making a comeback in Texas, Bloomberg reported Wednesday. But now, he won’t get the chance.
Elsewhere on Capitol Hill Thursday, Trump’s FDA picks for FDA commissioner, Marty Makary, and NIH director, Jay Bhattacharya, cleared the Senate health committee, teeing up a vote by the full Senate. With Republicans in control of the Senate, Makary and Bhattacharya’s confirmations are likely certain.
