Headline Roundup • March 13th, 2025
White House Withdraws Nomination for CDC Director
Summary from the AllSides News Team
The White House has withdrawn the nomination of Dave Weldon, a vaccine skeptic, internal medicine doctor, and former Republican Congressman, as the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). This move came hours before Weldon was scheduled to testify before a Senate committee.
The Details: Dave Weldon, 71, has previously raised concerns about the link between vaccination and autism, identifying mercury as a potential cause. During his time in Congress from 1995 to 2009, Weldon co-sponsored legislation to ban mercury in vaccines. An anonymous source told Fox News (Right bias) that the Senate didn't have the votes to confirm him.
What Is Weldon's Relationship With RFK? Axios (Lean Left) reported based on an anonymous source that Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said that Weldon wasn't ready, while the Hill (Center) and New York Times (Lean Left) reported that the two had a decades-long friendship and shared closely aligned views, not mentioning any reservations from Kennedy. The New York Times said, “Mr. Kennedy is 'very upset' at the decision to withdraw Dr. Weldon for consideration as C.D.C. director, Dr. Weldon said.” The New York Post (Lean Right) repeated Axios' reporting.
How The Media Covered It: Neither the Hill nor the New York Post noted his experience as a medical doctor, while the New York Times, Fox News, Axios, and ABC News (Lean Left) did. Axios broke the story.
Revised by the AllSides staff (of humans) after a first draft from our custom AI. Learn more. Support our mission.
Featured Coverage of this Story
The White House has withdrawn the nomination of Dave Weldon to lead the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
The Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee announced it has canceled Weldon’s nomination hearing, originally set for 10 a.m. EDT Thursday, following the withdrawal.
REUTERS/Tami Chappell
The White House is pulling the nomination of Dave Weldon for Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) director, Fox News Digital has confirmed. Weldon was expected to have his confirmation hearing on Thursday.
The Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee announced that it canceled its hearing in a statement on Thursday morning. However, it confirmed that lawmakers would still vote on the nominations of Dr. Jay Bhattacharya for National Institutes of Health (NIH) director and Dr. Marty Makary for Commissioner of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
Joe Raedle/Getty Images
The White House is withdrawing the nomination of Dave Weldon to be the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, per a source close to Senate health committee and another source familiar. Why it matters: The former Florida congressman was scheduled to appear before the committee this morning for his confirmation hearing. But his anti-vaccine views have garnered attention since he was nominated months ago and were sure to play a prominent role in questioning.
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