Senators Must Reject Notorious Antivaxxer Dave Weldon for CDC Director

WASHINGTON, D.C. – With the first deadly measles outbreak in a decade raging in the Southwest, tuberculosis outbreaks in several states, and bird flu spreading rapidly across the country, scientists, healthcare workers, and advocates from Defend Public Health urge the U.S. Senate to reject the nomination of notorious antivaxxer David Weldon, whose nomination to lead the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is under consideration this Thursday morning by the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions.

Ignoring robust scientific evidence, Weldon, a former congressman from Florida, has denied the safety of measles, mumps, rubella, and HPV vaccines, vaccines that have prevented hundreds of millions of cases of illness and saved millions of lives. He has falsely claimed that vaccines cause autism, a notion that has been thoroughly and repeatedly debunked. Weldon appeared in a 2019 anti-vaccine documentary filled with misinformation so dangerous to the public that it was removed from major platforms like Amazon and YouTube.  His nomination was widely celebrated by antivaxxers, and the hearing comes as meetings of two critical CDC vaccine advisory committees have been postponed with little explanation. Meanwhile, HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has hedged on measles vaccination for children in the midst of the current outbreak, while instead suggesting that immunization is a personal choice and falsely suggesting that good nutrition by itself is the best defense against chronic and infectious diseases.

DPH members feel strongly that having two leading anti-vaxxers at the helm of our nation’s public health response will endanger the health and lives of all Americans. While Senators voted to approve Mr. Kennedy after receiving vague assurances of reasonableness on vaccines, they still have an opportunity to vote “no” on Dave Weldon. Jessica Malaty Rivera, an infectious disease epidemiologist in San Francisco and a member of Defend Public Health, said, “Mr. Kennedy has not kept his promises on vaccines that he made to members of Congress. Dave Weldon is also likely to renege on any assurances he gives next week. Getting fooled once is bad enough. Senators shouldn’t allow themselves to be fooled twice and should reject Weldon’s nomination.”

DPH noted that the Trump administration is already recklessly undermining our nation’s vaccine response, and that adding Dave Weldon to the roster of anti-vaxxers in HHS agencies can only worsen things. “The Trump administration has already canceled or postponed key committee meetings used to develop essential vaccine recommendations, and has said it will embark on a needless study of a link between autism and vaccination, which is a waste of taxpayers’ money, as previous studies have found no such relationship,” said Dr. Zachary Levine,  an infectious disease physician in Michigan, also a member of Defend Public Health.