PThe resident candidate Donald Trump is scheduled to head to head the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), a former member of the Republican Congress, Dr. Dave Wildon, interrogated by Senators on March 13.
Weldon is scheduled to appear before The American Senate Committee on Health, Education, Work and Retirement Pensions For his candidacy session, members are likely to ask him about topics, including his previous statements that express doubts about the vaccine. If the Senate asserts, it will be Wildo, the agency’s director responsible for protecting public health in the country.
Here is what to know about Weldon.
Dave Wildon is an old doctor, warrior and a former member of Congress
Wildon, 71, served in the army, and currently It runs a special medical practice In Florida. From 1995 to 2009, he served in Congress, represented by Florida. Since then, it has been largely out of the political lights, although it is running campaigns – it’s lost The Republican Party’s introductory elections for a seat in the US Senate in 2012, as well as the Republican Party’s introductory elections to obtain a seat in the House of Representatives in Florida in 2024.
He was the head of the healthcare sharing coalition
From 2017 to 2020, Weldon was the head of the Alliance of Health Care Participation, a association for religious organizations that claim to provide alternatives to health insurance. The organizations have Arrest One of the governmental organizers, who expressed concern that the marketing strategies of groups have led to confusion among consumers on whether the ministries will fund medical claims.
When asked about this controversy before New York Times In November, Wildon said that during the time he was president of the coalition, “he strongly encouraged all ministries to gather and form an accreditation system, and I think they did so,” but since his departure, “I do not know how hard the matter is.”
Read more: The powers that Trump candidates will receive for abortion
He reiterated the prosecution that was exposed that there is a link between vaccines and autism
In the past, Wildon Common views Similar to its potential boss, Robert F. Kennedy JuniorHHS, when it comes to vaccines. Despite the years of research that proves the safety and effectiveness of vaccines, Weldon has Repeat previously the The claim has been exposed Some children can develop autism if they receive Measles.
Dr. Peter Hotz-It never works with the pediatric and molecular virus class at the College of Medicine in Baylor and the co-manager of the Texas Children’s Hospital Center for Vaccine Development-but he says that the wrong claim that vaccines can cause autism “meaningless”.
“We have overwhelming evidence that vaccines do not cause autism,” says Hotz. “Anyone who wants to reopen false autism and vaccine ties, you have to believe either it is misleading or have an agenda outside public health.”
Hutz says that many Weldon comments have been presented years ago, and he hopes that Trump’s candidate for the Disease Control Center may learn more about the topic and change his views. In November, when Times They spoke to Wildon, they asked him about his previous comments, but Wildon refused to mention whether he still believes that there is a link between vaccines and autism. Say to Times Its adults have been vaccinated, and it gives vaccines, including the influenza shot, for his adult patients.
During his service in Congress, Wildon sponsored a draft law passed with the support of the two parties in 2003. The draft law launched a program known as the PEPFAR Emergency Emergency Plan, which allocated $ 15 billion to HIV and tuberculosis, and malaria prevention and treatment programs in low countries. In more than two decades since then, Pepfar had Save Up to 25 million people, officials are estimated.
“There is a separation” between Wildon’s support for Pepfar and his previous anti -vaccine data, “says Hotz.
“But again, these [anti-vaccine theories] If the statements he made almost 20 years ago, what we need to discover is, where does he stand today and what are his opinions? thus [nomination hearing] “It will be very useful to find it,” says Hotz.
Read more: What to know about Marty Makary, Trump’s choice to lead the Food and Drug Administration
He criticized federal health agencies
Like some other Trump candidates to lead the nation’s health agencies, such as Dr. Marti MacariAnd that was nominated to lead the US Food and Drug Administration, Weldon was an audio critic of health agencies in the past. In April 2007, it is He said Federal agencies “failed to liberate themselves from conflicting interests that undermine the public’s confidence in the safety of vaccines.” The federal government accused the time to dedicate “much more resources to enhance vaccinations more than safety assessments”, and claimed that the Center for Disease Control focused vaccine safety resources on looking at short -term side effects, and was not focused enough on the long -term side effects. It is too Proposal The vaccine safety office is transferred from the Center for Disease Control and operation instead as a separate office within HHS.
Hotz says he was criticizing Wildde’s comments in 2007.
“Amendment Wildon”
Wildckon Composition and foot Wildon modification, which Pass In 2005, health agencies are prohibited from discrimination against health care institutions, medical services providers, and insurance plans that do not provide or finance abortion care, usually on a religious basis. Norbies Flint, the president of all reproductive rights group*, says, above all, that the amendment “was incredibly harmful to reach abortion.”
“This is especially important in places where there are many service providers to resort to,” says Flint. “Especially for those in rural spaces where there are no other providers, people are stuck.”
Flint notes that the 2025 project encouraged the upcoming presidential administration to “monitor abortion” through the Center for Disease Control, which is the agency in charge of collecting health data throughout the country. The 2025 project calls for HHS to ensure that “every state is exactly reports, the number of abortion processes that occur within its borders, in any age of pregnancy for the child, and for any reason, the condition of the mother’s place, and in what way.” Fleint and other advocates of reproductive rights Fearful Weldon can follow the project proposal 2025, and that the data collected can be used to identify service providers or even patients.
Wildon also shared unreliable claims about reproductive health. In 1998, it is Proposal There is a link between miscarriage and breast cancer; The American Cancer Society maintains “The best scientific evidence does not support the relationship between miscarriage and the risk of breast cancer.” In 2002, Weldon suggested that federal programs Focus on finishingInstead of teaching adolescents on contraceptives, to prevent sexual intercourse infections (STIS) – his search Find The educational programs that refrain from having sex are only ineffective.
“We have seen repeatedly that Weldon used bad flag,” says Flint. “Anyone who deserves to be weight in salt knows that refraining from having sex is not an effective policy against all of the diseases transmitted by sexual intercourse and unplanned pregnancy, and that we have a lot of data and research on our part that obtaining strong sexual education and accessing reproductive health care and confusion was the best way to reduce sexual contact diseases and transmission to pregnancy.”
Flint Wildon describes as “dangerous” for America’s public health, pointing to all of his previous anti -writing and writing comments. Flint says that when people share “bad sciences”, it can lead to the audience not familiar with important health topics, which can have severe consequences.
