The White House pulled the nomination of former Rep. Dave Weldon, (R-FL), to head the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention on Thursday morning, just hours before he was set to appear before the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP).

Axios was the first to report the news of the withdrawal of Weldon’s nomination. According to one of its sources, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. indicated Weldon, who is a doctor by training, was not ready for the role. 

Other sources familiar with the decision said that the administration had concerns about the former congressmen’s longheld, controversial views on vaccines. 

Several other news outlets followed up with similar reporting and the Senate HELP Committee announced that the hearing planned for 10 a.m. was canceled on its website.

In its place, the panel voted to advance two other public health nominations.

The committee voted 14-9 to advance the nomination of Johns Hopkins surgeon and writer Martin Makary to lead the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) as well as 12-11 to advance the nomination of health economist Jay Bhattacharya to run the National Institutes of Health. 

Still, the health news of the morning was the abrupt demise of Weldon’s lengthy, unexpected bid to lead the CDC.

He was selected by Trump in late November in a move that surprised a number of industry leaders and stakeholders.

Weldon represented Florida in the House from 1995 to 2009 and during his time in office, his most notable moment was introducing legislation to move vaccine oversight out of the purview of the CDC and into an independent agency within HHS.

A recent STAT News investigation into Weldon’s congressional records revealed that he has promoted anti-vaccine theories for decades. 

In 2007, Weldon led a bill to ban Thimerosal from vaccines based on a perceived but debunked link to autism. The ingredient had been removed from all child vaccines in the U.S. in 2001, but has been used as a preservative in vaccines for adults. 

Multiple studies have shown that there is no harm that comes from having Thimerosal in low doses in vaccines. 

According to an account from journalist David Kirby in his 2004 book Evidence of Harm, Weldon helped anti-vaccine researchers Dr. Mark Geier and his son access a CDC-housed dataset called Vaccine Safety Datalink, which contains patient health records. The data is only available to researchers. 

Additionally, while in the House, Weldon was also critical of the safety of Merck’s Gardasil vaccine for human papillomavirus (HPV).

If confirmed as the head of the CDC, Weldon would have had significant influence over vaccine recommendations through its Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP).

This is an independent advisory panel composed of pediatricians, public health experts and epidemiologists. Insurance companies are also required to cover vaccines recommended by the ACIP under the Affordable Care Act. 

Weldon would have also served as the key governmental official in addressing multiple public health concerns – including the current measles outbreak spreading rapidly across Texas and New Mexico, and the H5N1 bird flu, which has led to the death of over 100,000 birds. 

Kennedy, who has led the response to the measles outbreak, has been heavily criticized for recommending Vitamin A and cod liver oil as prevention and solution measures to the outbreak which has infected over 200 people and killed one unvaccinated child. 

Numerous doctors and public health experts across the country have rallied against his approach, doubling down on the message that the measles vaccine is the most effective solution to the outbreak. 

The CDC has retained that the measles vaccine is the recommended prevention and solution method to the growing rates of measles.

This is a developing story that will be updated as more information becomes available.