Atlanta, Georgia: Close-up of the entrance sign for the building that houses the Centers for Disease … [+]
President-elect Trump has nominated David Weldon to lead the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Weldon is a practicing physician and former congressman. He has also been a vaccine skeptic for years. In his announcementTrump said that “Americans have lost confidence in the CDC and in our federal health authorities, which have engaged in censorship, data manipulation and misinformation. Dave will prioritize transparency, competence and high standards at CDC.”
CDC is an agency with a $17 billion budget. The work extends from data collection to epidemiological studies to the publication of health statistics. The CDC’s mission also includes vaccine policy and issuing recommended schedules. Specifically, CDC is responsible for providing recommendations to the public on when and how to use vaccines approved by the Food and Drug Administration. This includes United States publishing for adults and children immunization schedulesincluding guidance on the age(s) at which vaccines should be given, the number of doses recommended, the timing of doses and other information. To inform its vaccine policy, CDC receives input from the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, which reviews the available evidence.
CDC director nominee Weldon has done so repeatedly questions raised on the safety of vaccines against measles, mumps, rubella and HPV, according to Politics. He could reinforce the vaccine-skeptical agenda that Health and Human Services Secretary nominee Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is likely to pursue. Like Weldon, Kennedy has questioned the safety of vaccines for years. Although Kennedy told the podcaster Lex Fridman in 2023 that some vaccines “probably prevent more problems than they cause,” he also claimed that “there is no vaccine that is, you know, safe and effective.”
The World Health Organization estimates that global immunization efforts have saved at least 154 million lives over the past 50 years. Yet Kennedy, founder of the anti-vaccine organization Children’s Health Defense, has claims that vaccines make children sicker with more chronic diseases and autism. He has spoken out against vaccination mandates and favors letting parents decide whether to immunize their children.
Similarly, Weldon caused controversy when he insinuated: link between the MMR injection and autism, citing debunked theories by (former) gastroenterologist Andrew Wakefield. As such, Weldon’s vaccine-skeptical views are a cause for concern in the public health community, the Guardian say.
The CDC director cannot ban vaccines. But the Secretary of Health and Human Services can hire (or replace) ACIP committee members, which could lead to new sets of CDC recommendations, especially if the HHS Secretary and the CDC Director hold the same views.
At first glance, some of Weldon’s statements about vaccines appear strictly aimed at addressing perceived safety concerns, while not necessarily undermining vaccines. When he introduced the Vaccine Safety and Public Confidence Act as a representative in Congress in 2007, declared: “I am a doctor. I understand the importance of vaccinations in protecting children and the general public against infectious diseases. As a society we benefit from vaccines and as such it is important that we carefully monitor vaccine safety research to ensure its objectivity.”
The account which Weldon sponsored, sought to undo what he saw as a conflict of interest posed by CDC being both a promoter of vaccines and an assessor of their safety. According to Weldon, vaccine safety research at the time should have been under the auspices of an independent department or agency within the Department of HHS.
He also introduced one piece of legislation in 2007, that would have limited who can receive vaccines containing thimerosal, a preservative used to prevent germ contamination. Theoretically, the ethylmercury base of thimerosal could lead to mercury poisoning at high doses. However, the additive has not been used in vaccines since 1999.
The CDC director makes the final decisions on whether to recommend a vaccine to the public. The guidance distributed by the CDC is not binding on states and local jurisdictions that establish vaccination requirements for school children and, in some cases, health care workers and patients or residents of health care facilities. But negative guidance from the CDC could affect insurance coverage, because insurers are only required to cover vaccines recommended by the agency.
As HHS Secretary, Kennedy would not be able to unilaterally eliminate the liability protections granted to pharmaceutical (vaccine) manufacturers under the Public Readiness and Preparedness Act. But he did criticism of the law and could work with Weldon and Congress to change the legislation.
Based on previously stated policy positions, both Weldon and Kennedy would support having the FDA reassess the safety of vaccines and directing the CDC to change its vaccine messages and recommendations.
If public health officials emphasize communicating about safety risks, no matter how small, rather than the overwhelmingly positive efficacy of vaccines, it could exacerbate already rising vaccine hesitancy.