When President-elect Donald Trump nominated 71-year-old doctor David Weldon from Florida to head the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), anti-vaccine activists were thrilled.
Weldon has long questioned the safety of the vaccines and has been part of some campaigns against it as well.
The crucial nomination of Weldon comes at a time when mpox and bird flu threats are looming in the US. If appointed, experts worry that it would jeopardise the whole process of tackling vaccine-preventable diseases.
"He is one of us!!... Since before our movement had momentum. Dream Come True," the co-director of the anti-vax group Mississippi Parents for Vaccine Rights wrote on Facebook.
Another anti-vaxxer in West Virginia wrote, "Every day more good news!"
"He's definitely someone who's very sympathetic to the anti-vaccine cause," Dorit Reiss, a professor of law at UC Law San Francisco was quoted by The Guardian.
Weldon was the founding member of the Congressional Autism caucus and as a representative to the US House from 1995 to 2009, he introduced two bills related to vaccines.
The first one was on the limited use of thimerosal in vaccines. It outlines who is eligible to receive vaccines containing thimerosal, despite evidence that low doses of thimerosal are safe. Thimerosal is a vaccine additive, which is added to some vaccines to prevent germs like bacteria and fungi from growing in them.
While, the second bill sought to move CDC's vaccine safety work to a separate, independent agency.
After failed primaries for the US Senate in 2012 and the US House again in 2014, Weldon returned to practising medicine privately. Though he had left the mainstream politics, he was not entirely gone. Robert F. Kennedy Jr, Trump’s pick for health secretary, has always given a spot for Weldon in the activities relating to the anti-vaccine campaigns.
Weldon once said that he attempted to slow the CDC’s process of investigating the link between autism and the measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccine – a thoroughly discredited theory advanced by Wakefield based on unethical research.
Experts fear that Kennedy at the helm could replace members of the CDC’s independent vaccine advisory committee and as the s CDC director, he could reject recommendations from the advisers.
Also, Weldon could influence public messaging from the CDC about the safety and effectiveness of vaccines.
The CDC makes evidence-based recommendations for vaccinations. Though the states are not required to follow the recommendations, most of them do.
With Kennedy as health secretary and Weldon to lead the CDC, experts point out that the Trump administration is openly sending a message that it is willing to work with the anti-vaccine movement.
