Latest news with #DaveWeldon
Yahoo
19-03-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Editorial: Vaccines save lives; politics kill — Bobby Kennedy's nutty ideas put Americans at risk
Vaccines are a modern miracle, saving an estimated 154 million lives in the last half-century. Vaccine skepticism is a fast-spreading virus against which America's inoculation is flagging. So count it as a very small victory that President Donald Trump and Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s choice to lead the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, a vax skeptic named Dave Weldon, couldn't get through a U.S. Senate where even a couple of Republicans can see basic scientific truth. Weldon, a former congressman and former practicing physician, has shamefully promoted the utterly discredited but still deeply corrosive claim that vaccines cause autism. We don't know what causes the set of conditions on that spectrum, which now affect some 1 in 36 children according to the best stats we have, provided by the same CDC. There are thousands of smart people doing research to try to crack the mystery all the time in labs and through carefully constructed, ethically sound clinical trials, hungry to find evidence that's significant and replicable. The hypothesis that vaccines cause autism never held up to scrutiny — but it's the one that seems to best fit the conspiracy-theory-infected worldview of the likes of Weldon and Kennedy and Trump, so it lives and lives and lives. It has casualties, and growing ones. As more and more families reject shots for their kids, diseases we had permanently purged from America find their way back inside our bodies. (Talk about a foreign invasion.) Measles, once eradicated, is again spreading in New Mexico and West Texas and even in our own area, where vaccine skepticism has long had a foothold in some parts of the ultra-orthodox Jewish community. In nearby Rockland County, a 2018-19 outbreak led to more than 300 verified cases, numbers that could pale in comparison to what might happen now that anti-vax people are at or clutching for the levers of power in Washington. Today in Rockland, just 62% of children countywide have had a measles shot by the age of 2. In Monsey, where there's a large ultra-Orthodox community, the numbers are as low as 41%. Medical history's many Jewish vaccine pioneers would shudder. This is not to say that every vaccine makes sense at all times for all people. They're medicine, like anything. People should consult their doctors and get the shots that work for them. Off the top of our head we can rattle off the flu shot and the COVID shot. There's the shingles and RSV vaccines. And the tetanus and hepatitis A shots. Listen to your doctor, not kooks like Bobby Kennedy and Dave Weldon. Medical professionals need to make wise recommendations to their patients, who should listen with open minds. Those recommendations are rooted in research that often gets funded if not conducted by, then synthesized by, good people in the federal government, chiefly the CDC. It all breaks down if the Senate assents to letting an ideological, evidence-denying vaccine skeptic like Weldon take charge of the apparatus. Good for Sens. Susan Collins, Lisa Murkowski and Bill Cassidy (a medical doctor himself) for bucking their party and siding with Democrats against Weldon, Kennedy and Trump. It's a small step but a real one. ___
Bloomberg
14-03-2025
- Health
- Bloomberg
RFK Jr.'s First Big Defeat on CDC Chief Tests Limits of Vaccine Agenda
Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s failure to install a fellow vaccine critic to a key government post is testing the limits of how far the US health secretary can go to promote his public-health agenda. The White House late Wednesday informed Dave Weldon that officials were pulling his nomination to lead the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention after his views on vaccines alarmed key Republican senators. Weldon had been scheduled to attend a Senate panel hearing the following morning, but 'there were not the votes' to confirm the nominee, Senator Bill Cassidy of Louisiana said.
Yahoo
13-03-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
White House drops CDC director choice, cancels confirmation hearing
The White House has withdrawn its nomination of Dr. Dave Weldon to head the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The nomination was pulled, according to what sources told The Associated Press, 'because it became clear Weldon did not have the votes for confirmation.' Axios, which first reported the nomination would be dropped, said that his views on vaccinations were a sticking point. The former Florida congressman was supposed to have a confirmation hearing before the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee on Thursday, but it was canceled. Axios reported that '(Health and Human Services) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy himself said Weldon wasn't ready,' quoting one of its sources. Hearings are still scheduled to consider the nominations of Dr. Jay Bhattacharya for National Institutes of Health director and Dr. Marty Makary for commissioner of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. AP reported that Weldon was not only an anti-vaccine activist, but was a 'prominent critic' of the agency he had been nominated to lead. CDC 'promotes vaccines and monitors their safety.' '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 provides funds to the public health and prevention activities of state and local health agencies,' according to Reuters. The White House has not said why the nomination was withdrawn. The debate over public health is heated right now as the U.S. grapples with rising cases of measles and also of avian influenza. This is the first time that a CDC director must be confirmed. Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., and Sen. Richard Burr, R-N.C., cosponsored the PREVENT Pandemics Act, which passed with bipartisan support and made the CDC director role one that must be confirmed by the Senate, starting this year. Murray has been an outspoken critic of the nomination of a vaccine skeptic to head the agency and issued a statement on the withdrawal of Weldon's nomination, quoting what she told Bloomberg: 'In our meeting last month, I was deeply disturbed to hear Dr. Weldon repeat debunked claims about vaccines — it's dangerous to put someone in charge at CDC who believes the lie that our rigorously tested childhood vaccine schedule is somehow exposing kids to toxic levels of mercury or causing autism.' Weldon is the third nominee who lost or left the bid to serve before a confirmation hearing. Former U.S. Rep. Matt Gaetz, a Florida Republican, opted out of his nomination for attorney general. Chad Chronister, a Florida sheriff and politician who had been tapped to lead the Drug Enforcement Administration, is the third who failed to make it to a confirmation hearing.
Yahoo
13-03-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
MAGA Melts Down as Trump Withdraws Anti-Vax Nominee at Last Minute
The MAGA right is seething after anti-vax conspiracy theorist Dave Weldon—Trump's pick to head the Center for Disease Control—had his nomination pulled at the last minute. Weldon, a former physician and representative, was getting ready for his Senate confirmation hearing on Thursday when the call to withdraw his nomination came down, according to Axios. Even Robert F. Kennedy expressed doubt with Weldon's confirmation, a source told Axios. But the far-right is taking Weldon's axing personally. 'Weldon—who is 'Make America Healthy Again'—his nomination was pulled. The rumor is about they didn't want questioning on measles,' Steve Bannon said on his War Room podcast. 'That would be unsatisfactory. You can't pull him over measles. No way. Impossible. So we gotta get to the bottom of that.' 'This just puts the last nail in the coffin. CDC is no longer a legitimate agency. No one is going to believe anything they say anymore,' one far-right account posted on X. 'Just SHUT IT DOWN and let the states make their own health recommendations.' 'This is absolutely devastating for MAHA. The antisemites are out for blood, and Trump is showing weakness in the last area he should: commitment to @SecKennedy agenda. It's beginning to look very bleak,' said another. 'Dave Weldon, a good man, no longer in the running for CDC. Weldon recognizes the problem with mercury in vaccines, supports parents who do not want to have their newborns vaxxed vs STDs, and drafted the 'Weldon Amendment ' protecting physicians of conscience. If not Dave-who?' one supporter opined. 'Personally, I'm devastated to hear this news. Dave Weldon has been a figure in this fight before RFKjr. He's remained out of the spotlight since he left congress, but the groundwork he laid made those of us with vax injured children hopeful when Trump nominated him,' yet another MAHA supporter wrote on X. 'This is such a profound loss. Whoever they get won't be nearly as aware & committed to doing the research that should have been done decades ago. The autism epidemic marches on. Sad day.'
Yahoo
13-03-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
White House pulls nomination of David Weldon as CDC director
The White House is pulling the nomination of Dave Weldon for Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) director, Fox News Digital has confirmed. Weldon was expected to have his confirmation hearing on Thursday. The Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee announced that it canceled its hearing in a statement on Thursday morning. However, it confirmed that lawmakers would still vote on the nominations of Dr. Jay Bhattacharya for National Institutes of Health (NIH) director and Dr. Marty Makary for Commissioner of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Trump Fda Nominee Turns Vaccine Question On Dem, Recalling Controversial Biden Decision "It became clear that the votes weren't there in the Senate for him to get confirmed. This would have been a futile effort," a source familiar with the nomination told Fox News Digital. However, there is no official reason for pulling the nomination at this time. The Wall Street Journal reported that Weldon was unaware that his nomination had been pulled until he reached the Capitol on Thursday morning. However, Fox News Digital's source said Weldon was told last night. We Will Make Sure Anyone Who Wants A Vaccine Can Get One, Says Hhs Secretary Read On The Fox News App Weldon, a medical doctor and former Florida congressman, has made statements against vaccines in the past, which were expected to be brought up during his hearing. In a 2007 statement, Weldon said there were "legitimate questions" about potential links between vaccines and childhood neurodevelopmental disorders, such as autism. Additionally, during his time in Congress, he introduced legislation with former Rep. Carolyn Maloney, D-Ny., that would have banned mercury from vaccines. The question of vaccine skepticism came up repeatedly during now-HHS Secretary RFK Jr.'s confirmation hearing. Democrats on the Senate HELP Committee repeatedly brought up Kennedy's claims linking vaccines to autism. They also asked about his time serving as chairman and chief litigation counsel, for Children's Health Defense, a nonprofit organization that has advocated against vaccines and sued the federal government numerous times. Fox News Channel's Peter Doocy and Fox News Digital's Paul Steinhauser contributed to this article source: White House pulls nomination of David Weldon as CDC director
