WASHINGTON — The Trump administration withdrew the nomination of Dave Weldon as its pick to run the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention hours before he was scheduled to appear for a crucial hearing, fearing his long track record of criticizing vaccines would jeopardize his chances of winning confirmation.
“There were not the votes,” Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.), chairman of the health committee before which Weldon would have appeared, told reporters. Cassidy said he didn’t speak with the White House before the nomination was pulled, and added that the White House made the decision.
Weldon’s withdrawal was a rare setback for a Trump nominee, and for the broader Make America Healthy Again movement. While both Republicans and Democrats scrutinized the vaccine criticism espoused by Trump’s top health official, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., he ultimately assuaged their concerns and was confirmed.
Cassidy, a physician, is a major proponent of vaccines. He has publicly sought assurances from RFK Jr. to shore up public confidence in immunizations, particularly amid an ongoing measles outbreak that has resulted in two deaths so far, including of an unvaccinated child.
In a lengthy public statement, Weldon said Cassidy and Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) opposed his nomination because they were concerned he held anti-vaccine views.
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Senators’ concerns with Weldon extended beyond his past criticism of childhood vaccinations, according to one person familiar with the matter. Weldon met with Republican staffers earlier this week, and the discussion left several feeling he was unprepared for the role of CDC director, the person said. Weldon described the meeting as “hostile” in his statement.
Staffers asked him questions about his plans to assuage concerns over vaccines, and his vision for the CDC. Weldon told them he did not yet have a plan. He also expressed uncertainty over the authorities of the agency director, its budget, and department priorities.
Weldon told the staffers that he had been busy transferring clients from his medical practice, and since there was a chance he may not get confirmed, “he didn’t want to spend all that time preparing,” only to not get the votes, the person familiar said.
The White House’s reservations about Weldon were described by two people familiar with the decision to pull his nomination.
Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) said she shared concerns about Weldon with the White House.
Weldon’s characterization of the staff interview this week was “not accurate” and her views on his nomination did not change, Collins said this afternoon.
“I had reservations about the way he would lead the [CDC], and I brought those up in the private meeting. I intended to follow up on those in the public hearing, but that never occurred.”
Weldon would have been the first CDC director to go through the Senate confirmation process, after a law passed in 2022.
The political salience of RFK Jr.’s views on vaccines appeared to increase in recent weeks, raising questions about pledges the Health and Human Services secretary made to Cassidy to win his support.
Since Kennedy’s confirmation, the Food and Drug Administration cancelled a flu vaccine advisory committee meeting, and the National Institutes of Health terminated or scaled back grants to study vaccine hesitancy. Plus, RFK Jr. has played down the severity of the Texas measles outbreak and hasn’t emphasized the role of vaccines in combatting it.
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This week, Cassidy pressed the administration for more information about a reported study on vaccines and autism. The research would have been led by the CDC, according to reports. Cassidy in other hearings had lamented that further research on vaccines and autism would be a waste of time and money.
Some proponents of the MAHA movement criticized the decision to pull Weldon’s nomination.
Children’s Health Defense, the anti-vaccine nonprofit that RFK Jr. led, said on the social media site X that it was “disappointed.” “He would be an ideal candidate for the protection of public health,” the group posted.
Sen. Ron Johnson, a MAHA booster who last year hosted a meeting that brought together prominent online health and wellness influencers, also said he was unhappy.
“What Congressman Weldon brought to the table was what you actually want in science, which is skepticism,” the Wisconsin Republican said. “We need to find somebody else who’s skeptical of the process, and the agency.”
Weldon, a physician, has promoted anti-vaccine theories for decades, according to a STAT review of his congressional record. He represented a Florida congressional district from 1995 until 2009.
Weldon held fast to the belief that vaccines caused autism, even though researchers have since debunked that theory. In 2007, he introduced a bill to ban thimerosal from vaccines based on a perceived link to autism. Thimerosal was removed from all childhood vaccines in the U.S. in 2001.
Weldon questioned the safety of measles, mumps, and rubella vaccines in particular after a since discredited and retracted study from British researcher Andrew Wakefield. “That fundamental question is: are there some cases of regressive autism that are due to the measles component of the MMR?” he asked in 2002. Two years later, after co-authors of Wakefield’s study issued a retraction, Weldon sought more than $1 million in federal funding for an autism center led by the doctor.
Weldon appeared in Wakefield’s 2016 documentary “Vaxxed,” in which he questioned the transparency and objectivity of the CDC and other health agencies.
The ex-nominee spent a significant portion of his Thursday statement defending Wakefield. He argued that only the 1998 paper positing a link between MMR vaccines and autism was withdrawn, and that if Wakefield had more funds he could have defended himself in court and not lost his medical license.
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Weldon also said that the CDC was charged with trying to replicate Wakefield’s research and proving the safety of measles vaccines but “they never did it the right way.”
STAT’s review of Weldon’s congressional archives show extensive dialogue with CDC officials about this charge, and responses from those officials, including then-CDC Director Julie Gerberding, pointing to vaccine safety research. Wakefield’s discredited study has not been replicated.
Still, Weldon insists that neither he nor Wakefield opposes vaccination and both agree that children should receive measles shots. They argue it could happen at an older age, or public health agencies can further research adverse events to MMR vaccines.
Axios first reported the news that Weldon’s nomination had been pulled. Senate Republicans have pushed through a host of controversial nominees for top administration roles, while only Matt Gaetz, Trump’s initial pick to be attorney general, has withdrawn.
It’s rare for nominees to be pulled so close to a hearing. In 2018, Ronny Jackson, Trump’s pick to run the Department of Veterans Affairs, saw his confirmation hearing postponed and then withdrew from consideration.
It is unclear who the White House will put up for CDC director now. Other names floated before Weldon’s November nomination included Florida Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo — who has questioned vaccines himself, and rolled back requirements in his state — and former Trump CDC Director Robert Redfield, who led the agency during the early months of the coronavirus pandemic.
Any nominee will likely face questions about the agency’s vaccine policies, vast mandate over infectious and preventable diseases, and its funding. The agency has been in GOP crosshairs since the pandemic and the public health response. House Republicans have advocated for roughly 20% budget cuts that would slash or entirely eliminate certain programs.
Weldon didn’t respond to STAT’s request for comment. He told The New York Times that he learned on Wednesday night that his nomination would be withdrawn, and said he was both shocked and relieved.
“I’m going to get on an airplane at 11 o’clock and I’m going to go home and I’m going to see patients on Monday,” Weldon told the Times. “I’ll make much more money staying in my medical practice.”