Anti-vaccine activists celebrated when El Cheato nominated David Weldon, a 71-year-old doctor from Florida who questions the safety of vaccines, to lead the CDC. AND he’s a Christian Nationalist? What could go wrong, we’re asking about every cabinet nominee.
The great Jonathan Larsen outlines Weldon’s Christianism and concludes:
His voting record has a consistent theocratic bent… Weldon has voted to block judges from ruling on the insertion of “God” into the Pledge of Allegiance. He supports prayer and “God Bless America” displays in public schools and the use of taxpayer money to fund religious schools.
How Weldon’s religious views — and his willingness to conceal them — might affect his leadership of the CDC hasn’t been publicly explored. In the week since Trump announced him, there’s been virtually no mention in mainstream news outlets of Weldon’s theocratic, extremist record.
This is Trump’s response to the threats of bird flu and mpox, as well as resurgences of whooping cough, measles and other vaccine-preventable diseases. Oh well! Via the Guardian:
“He is one of us!!” the co-director of the anti-vax group Mississippi Parents for Vaccine Rights wrote on Facebook. “Since before our movement had momentum. Dream Come True.” “Every day more good news!” wrote another prominent anti-vaxxer in West Virginia.
“SUCH GREAT NEWS TODAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!” announced AutismOne, a group that has platformed the anti-vaxxer who recommended chlorine dioxide, essentially industrial bleach, to “cure” autism. The organization also gave Weldon an award in 2013. “He’s definitely someone who’s very sympathetic to the anti-vaccine cause,” said Dorit Reiss, a professor of law at UC Law San Francisco.
As a representative to the US House from 1995 to 2009, Weldon was a founding member of the Congressional Autism caucus, and he introduced two bills related to vaccines. One bill would have limited who can receive vaccines containing thimerosal, even though nearly all vaccines were already made without the preservative by then, despite the evidence that low doses of thimerosal are safe. Another bill sought to move the CDC’s vaccine safety work to a separate, independent agency, a major change.
