The White House has withdrawn President Donald Trump’s nomination of former Republican congressman Dave Weldon as director of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). A source familiar with the matter revealed on Thursday that Weldon did not have the necessary votes for Senate confirmation, reports news agency Reuters.
The Senate health committee announced Thursday morning that it was canceling a planned hearing on Weldon’s nomination because of the withdrawal.
Weldon, a physician who has opposed abortion rights, had been scheduled to appear before the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee on Thursday for a confirmation hearing.
The Atlanta-based CDC, with an annual budget of $17.3 billion, tracks and responds to domestic and foreign threats to public health. Roughly two-thirds of its budget funds public health and prevention activities for state and local health agencies.
While in Congress, Weldon challenged studies demonstrating the safety of childhood vaccines, asserting they were harmful and linked to autism. This theory, espoused by longtime vaccine skeptic Robert F. Kennedy Jr., has been debunked by scientists. Reuters has reported that the CDC still plans to study autism and vaccines.
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