By Josh Nathan-Kazis

A Senate committee on Thursday morning cancelled a nomination hearing for Dave Weldon, the former congressman with a history of vaccine skepticism who President Trump had named to lead the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The cancellation came less than an hour before the meeting was set to start. Axios reported shortly before 9 a.m. that the White House was withdrawing Weldon's nomination.

A spokesman for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, which oversees the CDC, referred a question about the status of Weldon's nomination to the White House. The White House didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.

Weldon, a Florida Republican who served seven terms in Congress beginning in 1995, was a relative unknown when Trump named him as his nominee to lead the CDC last fall. A report in STAT published Wednesday found that he had a long history of vaccine skepticism. STAT reported that Kennedy's allies had pushed Weldon as a CDC nominee.

Shares of vaccine-maker Moderna were up 5.4% as the market opened Thursday.

The CDC tracks and responds to health threats in the U.S., promotes healthy behaviors, and is responsible for setting the vaccine schedules that determine what vaccinations Americans receive throughout their lives.

Trump selected boldfaced names for his other top health picks: Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the HHS secretary, is a prominent member of America's most famous political clan, while the nominee to lead the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, Dr. Mehmet Oz, was a daytime television host, the nominee to lead the Food and Drug Administration, Dr. Mary Makary, has been a frequent guest on conservative cable television, and the nominee to lead the National Institutes of Health, Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, gained fame during the Covid-19 pandemic as a critic of the mainstream public health response.

Write to Josh Nathan-Kazis at josh.nathan-kazis@barrons.com

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March 13, 2025 09:46 ET (13:46 GMT)

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