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The White House has withdrawn the nomination of vaccine skeptic and former Republican Congressman Dave Weldon to lead the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), hours before he was set to testify before a Senate committee.
Weldon, 71, was slated to answer questions before the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee on Thursday — but a White House spokesperson confirmed to The Post that the CDC pick was no longer under consideration.
The reversal came after Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. confided that Weldon wasn’t ready for the position, according to Axios, which first reported on the nominee’s withdrawal.
Weldon has previously raised questions about links between vaccination and autism, identifying mercury as a potential cause.
The Florida Republican served in Congress from 1995 to 2009 — and videos of his vaccine skepticism went viral on social media earlier this week in anticipation of a pitched confirmation fight.
While representing the Sunshine State in the House, Weldon co-sponsored legislation to ban mercury in vaccines.
Kennedy, 71, was hit with similarly pointed lines of questioning about his stances on the polio, measles and hepatitis B vaccines during his own confirmation hearing — but won the approval of HELP Committee Chairman Bill Cassidy (R-La.) and other Republicans and was later confirmed.
