Dr. Dave Weldon, a former Republican representative and election to President Trump lead the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, will appear before the Senate Health Committee on Thursday.
Dr. Weldon, 71, is probably the least known man appointed to lead a major agency in the Department of Health and Human Services. But he is most closely aligned with the country's new health secretary, Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
Dr. Weldon, like Kennedy, has long questioned the safety of certain vaccines, and the two have maintained a 25-year relationship. The Health Secretary cited Dr. Weldon's criticism of the CDC and his own criticism.
Dr. Weldon served in the Legislature for 14 years from 1995 to 2009. His signature legislative achievement is Weldon's amendment, prohibiting discrimination against hospitals and hospitals and health insurance plans that choose not to offer or pay abortions.
He also argued that abstinence is the most effective way to control sexually transmitted diseases. Cases have skyrocketed in recent years, and only began to level out in 2023.
Dr. Weldon's hearing took place amid a major outbreak of measles in Texas and New Mexico, infecting more than 250 people and claiming two lives. The flu season led to record numbers of hospitalizations. And the possibility of avian flu outbreak.
He is likely to face harsh questions about his views on the measles vaccine he has repeatedly questioned safely, and the CDC itself, which has sharply criticized it as not enough to prove that it is safe.
While in Congress, Dr. Weldon said there was a conflict of interest in the agency as he pushed the Vaccine Safety Agency to move away from CDC control and also bought and promoted vaccines.
In an interview with the New York Times in late November, Dr. Weldon said he had worked “to drive mercury out of the vaccines of his childhood” but described himself as a vaccination advocate.
Both his adult children have been fully vaccinated, he said. As a doctor on the coast of Florida, he prescribes patients thousands of doses of flu and other vaccines.
“I'm called an anti-vaccine,” Dr. Weldon said, but added: I believe in vaccinations. ”
Members of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions have also questioned Mr. Kennedy (later supported) and Dr. Jayanta Bhatacharya, and his respective candidates, who lead the National Institutes of Health and Food and Drug Administration, as well as Dr. Marty McCurry.
(A hearing for Dr. Mehmet Oz, a candidate who runs the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, is scheduled for Friday.)
Apart from a handful of tough questions from Sen. Bill Cassidy, a Louisiana Republican, comments from members have fallen largely along partisan boundaries. Dr. Weldon's hearing is not expected to be different.
A doctor, Senator Cassidy, can force Dr. Weldon to use the hepatitis B vaccine, which is administered to children at birth.
Dr. Weldon, like Kennedy, has questioned the need to exempt children from hepatitis B, explaining that it mainly plagues adults with sexually transmitted diseases.
