W.,H. Pulls Director CDC Because He is Too Far Out on Vax

Former Rep. Dave Weldon. Photo: Joe Raedle/Getty Images

• Caitlin Owens//Axios

 The White House is withdrawing the nomination of Dave Weldon to be the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), per a source close to Senate health committee and another source familiar.

Why it matters: The former Florida congressman was scheduled to appear before the committee this morning for his confirmation hearing. But his anti-vaccine views have garnered attention since he was nominated months ago and were sure to play a prominent role in questioning. 

• HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy himself said Weldon wasn't ready, per one of the sources.

Background: Weldon is an internal medicine doctor who served in the House of Representatives from 1995 through 2009. While in Congress, he was one of the sponsors of a bill that would have banned mercury from vaccines.

• In a 2007 statement on a different bill he sponsored, Weldon wrote that "legitimate questions persist regarding the possible association between the mercury-based preservative, thimerosal, and the childhood epidemic of neurodevelopmental disorders (NDDs), including autism."
• Thimerosal has been used as a preservative in vaccines, although it was taken out of childhood vaccines in 2001, per the CDC. Many studies have found no evidence of harm of thimerosal in low doses in vaccines.
• Studies have also found no evidence of a connection between vaccines and autism.

In nearly three weeks as Health and Human Services secretary, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. certainly hasn't allayed concerns that he'll bring his vaccine criticism — most if not all of it unfounded — into his role as the nation's top health care official.

Why it matters: Several of Kennedy's vaccine-related actions have stoked fears that the anti-vaccine movement has gained a powerful foothold within the federal government in the midst of a worsening measles outbreak in Texas, one of the worst flu seasons in more than a decade and a circulating bird flu virus that has pandemic potential.