The Japan Times - White House withdraws vaccine-skeptic nominee to lead US health agency

Internal medicine doctor and former Florida congressman David Weldon has long expressed concerns about adverse effects from immunization and promoted the debunked theory about a link between vaccines and autism.

The withdrawal comes as a measles outbreak has killed two people and sickened more than 250 patients in Texas and New Mexico, the majority of whom are unvaccinated.

A Senate committee that would have scrutinized his nomination put out a statement just minutes before the hearing was scheduled to take place.

"Following the withdrawal of the nomination of Dr. David Weldon to be Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, today's Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee hearing is canceled," it said.

Weldon, 71, told the New York Times he had been contacted by a White House official on Wednesday night who said "they didn't have the votes to confirm" his nomination.

As a Republican congressman, Weldon had co-sponsored a bill in 2007 that never passed for the creation of a vaccine safety office independent of the CDC, which he said had an inherent conflict of interest.

He also raised the "possible association between the mercury-based preservative, thimerosal, and the childhood epidemic of neurodevelopmental disorders (NDDs), including autism."

Thimerosal was taken out of childhood vaccines in the United States in 2001, and "there is no evidence of harm caused by the low doses of thimerosal in vaccines, except for minor reactions like redness and swelling at the injection site," according to the CDC.

The US Department of Health and Human Services, which operates the CDC, is now led by Robert F. Kennedy Jr, a friend of Weldon's who is also a vaccine skeptic.

Kennedy was said to be "very upset" at the decision to withdraw Weldon, according to the New York Times.

S.Yamada--JT