Trump pulls Weldon nomination to lead CDC; CMS pick Dr. Oz scheduled for hearing on Friday

The White House is withdrawing the nomination of David Weldon, MD, to lead the U.S. Centers for Control and Prevention (CDC).

Meanwhile, Mehmet Oz, MD, MBA, the heart surgeon and television personality nominated to lead the U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), is scheduled to appear before the Senate Finance Committee on March 14.

A hearing with Weldon, an internal medicine physician, was scheduled this morning in the U.S. Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor & Pensions. Before the 10 a.m. start, the news outlet Axios reported the administration of President Donald J. Trump was withdrawing the nomination of Weldon, an Army veteran who served in Congress representing Florida from 1995 to 2009. The hearing was canceled, per the committee.

Weldon’s “anti-vaccine views have garnered attention since he was nominated months ago and were sure to play a prominent role in questioning,” the Axios report said. That outlet noted Weldon had sponsored legislation that would have banned mercury from vaccines.

“While in Congress, Weldon criticized the (CDC), especially its vaccine program,” said a profile published online by lobbying firm BGR Group. “He championed research that thimerosal, a vaccine preservative, is linked to autism. He was a founding member of the Congressional Autism Caucus and pushed for thimerosal to be removed from vaccines.”

That profile also noted Weldon “led activities to remove vaccine components and increase transparency.” He was co-sponsor of a bill that would have removed most vaccine safety research from CDC and transferred that responsibility to an independent agency under the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. In 2004, Weldon urged the Institute of Medicine, now the National Academy of Medicine, to further investigate whether exposure to thimerosal in vaccines could be connected to neurodevelopmental disorders, the BGR profile said.

Weldon also sponsored legislation that would bar human cloning and was a proponent of the Fetus Farming Prohibition Act, which President George W. Bush signed into law to block use of tissue of a fetus created for research purposes.

Dr. Oz in the Senate

The Senate Finance Committee is scheduled to hold a hearing for Oz on March 14. Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Massachusetts) this week announced she published a letter to Oz asking that he mitigate potential financial conflicts of interest if he leads CMS. She said Oz, as a managing member or adviser, “has deep ties to companies that stand to profit from his potential decisions at CMS.”

“If confirmed, you will be expected to steward CMS’s $1.5 trillion budget in the best interest of the over 140 million Americans on Medicare and Medicaid,” Warren wrote. “Entering this role with financial conflicts of interest would undermine your effectiveness and the effectiveness of the programs you are slated to administer.”

Warren’s announcement said she pressed Dr. Oz to make the following commitments before his confirmation vote:

• Divest from any remaining financial interests in health-related companies or patents that he will have the power to influence,
• Recuse from matters involving his former employers and clients,
• Not lobby CMS or join the industries that depend on CMS’s work for four years after leaving office.