Vaccine critic Dave Weldon, President Donald Trump’s pick to lead the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, will have to contend with rising measles cases and bird flu threats at an agency already reeling from staff cuts and public distrust of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Mr. Weldon, a physician and former Republican congressman who opposed abortion rights, will appear before the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee on Thursday as part of the confirmation process. All of Mr. Trump’s nominees awaiting Senate confirmation have received the green light from the Republican-controlled chamber.
In his prepared testimony, Weldon said he plans to recommend measles vaccines for children and will work to “restore public trust” in the CDC, Bloomberg News reported.
In his written testimony, he also said he would conduct a “comprehensive” evaluation of the agency’s programs. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who oversees the CDC, said the agency should focus more on combating chronic diseases.
The CDC, with a budget of $17.3 billion, monitors and responds to domestic and foreign threats to public health. About two-thirds of its budget funds public health and prevention activities by state and local health agencies.
The agency has already undergone staff cuts as part of the Trump administration’s overhaul of the federal government, and more are expected.
On Wednesday, a group of U.S. senators led by Bill Cassidy, a Louisiana physician who chairs the committee overseeing the confirmation, launched a Senate Republican task force to examine potential legislative reforms to the CDC.
Mr. Weldon will likely face questions from Democrats about his past statements on vaccine safety after Mr. Kennedy responded to a growing measles outbreak in Texas and New Mexico by saying vaccination was a personal choice.
While in Congress, Weldon questioned studies showing the safety of childhood vaccines, claiming they were harmful and linked to autism, a theory championed by Kennedy, a longtime vaccine skeptic, but refuted by scientists. Reuters reported that the CDC plans to study autism and vaccines.
As CDC director, Weldon would oversee the agency’s role in reviewing and making recommendations on the use of licensed vaccines, with the help of a group of outside experts known as the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices.
A three-day meeting of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, scheduled for late February, was postponed last month after Kennedy was installed as Health and Human Services secretary.
The CDC also oversees the Vaccines for Children program, which sets childhood vaccination schedules and provides vaccines to those who cannot afford them.
The CDC director can reject ACIP recommendations regarding FDA-approved vaccines, appoint members who oppose vaccines, or eliminate the group altogether.
Mr. Weldon would also play a major role in the U.S. response to the growing H5N1 bird flu outbreak, which has decimated poultry farms, infiltrated dairy herds and infected about 70 people in the U.S., one of whom has died.
Although the risk to the general public remains low, it is moderate to high for people who come into contact with infected animals or surfaces, according to the CDC’s latest risk assessment.
Virologists fear the virus could mutate into a form that spreads easily among humans, potentially triggering a pandemic.
Abortion rights advocates are wary of Weldon’s anti-abortion views, although they would not hinder a Republican-controlled confirmation.
He authored the Weldon Amendment, a budget rider that prohibits the Department of Health and Human Services from funding state and local programs that discriminate against those who refuse to perform abortions for religious or personal reasons.