The former member of the Congress Dave Weldon approaches a small crowd in the villages, in Florida.
Brendan Farrington | AP
The White House withdrew the candidate of President Donald Trump to direct the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the former representative Dave Weldon, confirmed the Senate health committee on Thursday.
This decision occurred a few hours before the former Florida legislator, a vaccination critic, appeared before the American Senate, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee for a Confirmation Audience. The panel said that the hearing, scheduled for 10 a.m. HE, is canceled.
Axios reported on the decision for the first time. Robert F. Kennedy, who heads the Ministry of Health and Social Services, said Weldon was not ready for the role, Axios reported. HHS oversees the CDC and all other federal health agencies.
But Weldon’s views align carefully with Kennedy, a notorious vaccination skeptic. Weldon, 71, has long questioned the safety of certain vaccines, promoting false affirmation connecting vaccines to autism. In 2006, Weldon appeared with parents who claimed that the CDC had covered evidence binding vaccines to children developing autism.
The CDC would have re -examined this link under Kennedy despite decades of research.
During his stay at the Congress, Weldon sponsored a bill which would transfer responsibility for the security of vaccines far from the CDC. He said the agency had a conflict of interest because it buys and promoted vaccines. The bill has never made past committees.
Weldon is an internal medical doctor who served in the congress for 14 years, from 1995 to 2009.
Senator Patty Murray, Washington Democrat and member of the aid committee, said that she was “deeply disturbed” by Weldon’s false allegations concerning vaccines.
In a statement on Thursday, Murray said: “Although I have little confidence in the Trump administration to do so, they should immediately name someone for this position which, at least, believes in fundamental science and will help direct the important work of the CDC to monitor and prevent fatal epidemics.”
She added that Kennedy already makes “incalculable damage by distributing lies and disinformation as a senior health official in America”.
HHS did not immediately respond to a request to comment on why the administration made the appointment of Weldon and when Trump can choose another person for the position.