By Julie Steenhuysen
CHICAGO (Reuters) -Vaccine critic Dave Weldon, President Donald Trump’s pick to lead the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, will face rising measles cases and bird flu threats at an agency already in turmoil from staff cuts and public distrust over the COVID-19 pandemic.
Weldon, a physician and former Republican congressman who has opposed abortion rights, will appear before the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee on Thursday as part of the confirmation process. All of Trump’s nominees that require Senate confirmation have been green lighted by the Republican-controlled chamber.
In his prepared testimony, Weldon said he plans to recommend the measles vaccines for children and he would focus on “restoring public confidence” in the CDC, Bloomberg News reported.
In written testimony, he also said that he would do a “comprehensive” assessment of the agency’s programs. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., under whose purview the CDC falls, has said it should focus more on tackling chronic disease.
The CDC, with a budget of $17.3 billion, tracks and responds to domestic and foreign threats to public health. Roughly two-thirds of its budget funds state and local health agencies’ public health and prevention activities.
The agency has already faced staff cuts as the Trump administration overhauls the federal government, with more expected.
On Wednesday, a group of U.S. senators led by Bill Cassidy, a physician from Louisiana who chairs the committee overseeing the confirmation, launched a Senate Republican working group to examine potential legislative reforms to the CDC.
Weldon will likely face questions from Democrats about his past statements on vaccine safety after Kennedy responded to a widening measles outbreak in Texas and New Mexico by saying vaccination is a personal choice.
While in Congress, Weldon challenged studies demonstrating the safety of childhood vaccines, asserting they were harmful and linked with autism, a theory espoused by longtime vaccine skeptic Kennedy but debunked by scientists. Reuters reported that the CDC does plan to study autism and vaccines.
As CDC director, Weldon would oversee the agency’s role in reviewing and making recommendations about the use of licensed vaccines, aided by a panel of outside experts known as the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices.
A three-day ACIP meeting set for late February was postponedlast month after Kennedy’s installation as Secretary of Health and Human Services.
CDC also oversees the Vaccines for Children program that sets childhood vaccination schedules and provides inoculations to those who cannot afford them.
The CDC director can reject ACIP recommendations about vaccines approved by the FDA, appoint members who oppose vaccines or abolish the panel altogether.
Weldon also would play a major role in the U.S. response to the growing H5N1 bird flu outbreak, which has decimated poultry flocks, infiltrated dairy herds and infected about 70 people in the United States, with one death.
Although the risk to the general public remains low, it is moderate to high for people in contact with infected animals or surfaces, according to CDC’s latest risk assessment.
Virologists fear the virus could mutate into a form that spreads easily among people, potentially sparking a pandemic.
Abortion rights advocates are wary of Weldon’s anti-abortion views, although that would not hamper a confirmation controlled by Republicans.
He is the author of the Weldon Amendment, an appropriations rider that barred HHS from funding state and local programs that “discriminated” against those who refuse to provide abortion care based on religious or personal beliefs.
(Reporting by Julie SteenhuysenEditing by Bill Berkrot)
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