Dr. Dave Weldon, a former U.S. representative from Florida, was informed 12 hours before his scheduled confirmation hearing that the White House was pulling his nomination to lead the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The reason was simple enough—he lacked the votes. But according to Weldon, he was guilty of another “big sin” that he believes is the real reason key senators objected to his nomination.
In a lengthy statement responding to the Trump administration’s decision, Weldon pointed the blame at Big Pharma, which he called “the most powerful lobby organization” in D.C. and one that gives millions to lawmakers on both sides of the political aisle.
Given Big Pharma couldn’t sink Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s nomination to lead HHS, Weldon said there was no way they were going to let both men be in top spots within the Trump administration and put pressure on GOP Sens. Susan Collins and Bill Cassidy to vote against him.
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
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 that none of us took money from Pharma. Bernie Sanders actually joined us.
The other vaccine he wanted to look at was the measles vaccine. He describes a British pediatric gastroenterologist Andrew Wakefield who, after complaints from parents, found the kids had developed a new form of inflammatory bowel disease. After more research, it was discovered that the biopsies in these kids contained the same strain of the measles virus as in the vaccine. After this research was published, British parents began protesting the MMR vaccine and measles outbreaks occurred, putting British health officials in a bind. Not only did they get the medical journal to pull the article, they got the author to withdraw his research findings and eventually revoked his medical license. With four young children at home, Weldon, who knew the researcher, believes Wakefield knew if he didn't go along with it that not only would he lose his job but his life would be ruined.
[T]hat was all big Pharma needed. They could go around, saying it and feeding it to the media that the research had been withdrawn and Wakefield lost his license. But I looked at the micrographs and it sure looked to me like there was vaccine strain measles particles infecting the bowels of these kids.
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 deepidemiologic 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.
Throughout the four-page statement, Weldon never once criticized President Trump. In fact, he acknowledged how busy the president is and that "the last thing he needs is a controversy about CDC."
In the end, he hoped the Trump administration would be able to "find someone for CDC who can survive the confirmation process and get past pharma and find some answers."