Former Congressman Dr. David Weldon has accused Senators Susan Collins (R-ME) and Bill Cassidy (R-LA) of blocking his nomination to lead the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
Dr. Weldon, a seasoned physician with decades of experience in medicine and public service, was set to be confirmed as CDC Director under the Trump administration.
However, just twelve hours before his scheduled confirmation hearing, he received a phone call from the White House notifying him that his nomination had been withdrawn due to insufficient votes for confirmation.
“I then spoke to HHS Secretary Bobby Kennedy, who was very upset,” Weldon revealed. “He told me he had been looking forward to working with me at CDC and that I was the perfect person for the job.”
According to Weldon, who was picked by President Trump himself, the major roadblocks to his confirmation came from within his own party.
He pointed to Senator Collins, who expressed sudden reservations despite previously supporting him, and Senator Cassidy, who actively lobbied against his nomination.
Cassidy, a fellow physician and supposed ally, allegedly parroted false claims that Weldon was “anti-vax” or held the belief that vaccines cause autism.
In a statement, Weldon wrote:
“Bobbie told me that earlier that morning he had breakfast with Republican Senator Susan Collins of Maine who said she now had reservations about my nomination and was considering voting no. I had a very pleasant meeting with her 2 weeks prior where she expressed no reservation, but at my meeting with her staff on March 11 they were suddenly very hostile-a bad sign.
They repeatedly accusing me of being “antivax”, even though I reminded them that I actually give hundreds of vaccines every year in my medical practice.
More than Twenty years ago, while in congress I raised some concerns about childhood vaccine safety, and for some reason Collins staff suddenly couldn’t get over that no matter what I said back.
There are 12 Republicans and 11 Democrats on the committee so losing one, was a problem if all the Democrats vote no which they have been doing.
I can assume that the White House staff had my nomination withdrawn also because the Republican Chairman Dr. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana was also voting no.
Ironically, he is also an internist like me and I have known him for years and I thought we were friends. But he too was also throwing around the claim that I was “antivax” or that I believed that vaccines cause autism which I have never said.
He actually once asked that my nomination be withdrawn. So, he was a big problem and losing Collins too was clearly too much for the White House. The president is a busy man doing good work for our nation and the last thing he needs is a controversy about CDC.”
The Hill reports that Alaska Senator Lisa Murkowski (R) relayed her concerns about Weldon to the White House.
The deeper issue, according to Weldon, is that his past work exposing concerns about childhood vaccines made him a target of Big Pharma.
During his tenure in Congress, Weldon had raised alarms over the presence of thimerosal, a mercury-based preservative, in vaccines.
Under pressure from lawmakers like Weldon and even far-left Senator Bernie Sanders, thimerosal was eventually removed from childhood vaccines. However, Weldon believes that Pharma and its allies in government never forgave him.
Dr. Weldon: The concern of many people is that big Pharma was behind this which is probably true. They are, hands-down, the most powerful lobby organization in Washington DC, giving millions of dollars to politicians on both sides of the aisle.
They also purchased millions of dollars of advertising in newspapers, magazines, and on television. For any news or organization to take on big Pharma could be suicide. Many media actually carry water for Pharma. They also give generously to medical societies and colleges and universities. I have learned the hard way don’t mess with Pharma.
I have been told that Big Pharma had desperately tried to get rid of Bobby Kennedy but were unable due to the strong support of President Trump. Many people feel Big Pharma actually feared me more than they feared Bobby because of my credibility and my knowledge of science and medicine.
So, if they had to live with Bobby for 4 years they were definitely not going to have both him and me and put serious pressure on Collins and Cassidy.
My big sin was that as a congressman 25 years ago I had the temerity to take on the CDC and big Pharma on two critical childhood vaccine safety issues.
Hundreds of parents had been coming to me from all over the country, insisting that their child has been seriously damaged by the inoculations. Some claimed it caused autism. The parents made two different assertions.
One was the fact that FDA, CDC, and Pharma had allowed a tremendous amount of a neurotoxic preservative called thimerosal into the infant schedule and that the thimerosal was the cause of the problem.
Under pressure from me and many other members of the House, both Democrat and Republican, the CDC and Pharma removed the neurotoxic thimerosal, but it took them years to do it.
One of the things that seemed to unite us in The House who engaged on this was that none of us took money from Pharma. Bernie Sanders actually joined us.
CDC ended up publishing a research study claiming the mercury had done no harm, but there were credible accusations that CDC had incorrectly manipulated the data to exonerate themselves.
If confirmed I was planning on going back into the CDC database and quietly investigate this claim. Ironically, I was hoping to find no evidence of corruption of the science at CDC.
Maybe in hearing it from me members of the public might be reassured and it might help improve the currently somewhat tarnished image of CDC and Pharma.
He also challenged the safety of the MMR measles vaccine after British researcher Andrew Wakefield linked it to inflammatory bowel disease in kids. Wakefield’s findings were smeared, his license stripped, but Weldon saw the evidence himself.
Dr. Weldon: But I unfortunately also had the temerity to take on CDC and Pharma regarding another childhood vaccine safety issue, the safety of the measles vaccine called MMR. More than 25 years ago there were a series of articles published by a British pediatric gastroenterologist named of Andrew Wakefield. He had seen many parents who claimed that after the MMR their child had not only deteriorated developmentally but had also become fussy eaters and developed diarrhea. He did colonoscopies on the children and discovered that they had a new form of inflammatory bowel disease. His research was later duplicated and to this day he has been credited for defining this form of childhood inflammatory bowel disease.
Wakefield published 15 papers in all. Only one was withdrawn. The one that created the big controversy was published in a journal called Lancet and one of the co-authors on the paper was a highly respected Irish virologist by the name of O’Leary.
[…]
The CDC was charged with the responsibility of repeating to Wakefield research and showing that the measles vaccine was safe, but they never did it the right way. They decided to de epidemiologic studies instead of a clinical study.
Again, as in the mercury study there were claims made that indicators that there was a problem with MMR were there. CDC was accused again of changing the protocol and data analysis until the association went away.
Ironically, I talked with Wakefield after all of this was over. He agreed with me that we have to vaccinate our kids for measles. He thought the solution was to give the vaccine at a slightly older age, like they do in many European countries. Or we might be able to do research and figure out why some kids have a bad reaction to the MMR. Clearly, big Pharma didn’t want me in the CDC investigating any of this.
The CDC’s credibility is already in tatters after its disastrous handling of COVID-19 and its cozy relationship with pharmaceutical corporations. Polls show that 40% of Democrats and a staggering 80% of Republicans don’t trust the agency. Trump’s decision to nominate Weldon was a bold move to restore integrity to an institution plagued by political and corporate interference.
But now, thanks to Collins and Cassidy, that effort has been sabotaged. The establishment continues to protect its own, shielding the CDC from accountability while Americans are left with more questions than answers.
The post Dr. David Weldon Accuses GOP Senators Susan Collins and Bill Cassidy of Sabotaging His Nomination as CDC Director, Leading the White House to Withdraw It appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.