A Senate panel will consider President Trump’s nominee to serve as the director for the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), former Rep. Dave Weldon (R-Fla.), at a confirmation hearing on Thursday.
Weldon, a medical doctor and Army veteran, was a seven-term lawmaker until 2008. He is likely to face tough questions from Democrats on the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee about his public health views.
Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.) said that during a private meeting last month, Weldon told her that he believes there’s a link between vaccines and autism and that the childhood vaccine schedule puts children in danger due to mercury exposure.
Murray said in a statement Wednesday she was “deeply disturbed” by the conversation, adding “it’s dangerous to put someone in charge at CDC who believes the lie that our rigorously tested childhood vaccine schedule is somehow exposing kids to toxic levels of mercury or causing autism.”
Watch Weldon’s hearing live above.