White House withdraws Trump's pick Weldon for CDC director

By Steve Holland and Julie Steenhuysen

WASHINGTON, March 13 (Reuters) - The White House, in a surprise move, withdrew President Donald Trump's nomination of former Republican congressman and vaccine critic Dave Weldon to serve as director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention just hours before his confirmation hearing on Thursday.

Weldon, a physician who has a long history of opposing vaccines, had been scheduled to appear before the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee. The committee confirmed the withdrawal of the nomination and said the hearing had been canceled.

A source briefed on the matter, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Weldon lacked the votes needed for Senate confirmation.

Weldon marks the first nominee the Trump administration has withdrawn from consideration. The decision comes as the U.S. faces measles cases in several states and a widening outbreak in West Texas and New Mexico that has killed two people, as well as the threat of bird flu.

Weldon would have reported to Robert F. Kennedy Jr., an avowed vaccine skeptic who heads the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, which oversees the CDC.

The withdrawal was first reported by the Axios news outlet.

The Atlanta-based CDC, with an annual budget of $17.3 billion, tracks and responds to domestic and foreign threats to public health. Roughly two-thirds of its budget provides funds to the public health and prevention activities of state and local health agencies.

"The health appointments by the Trump administration have been uniformly unqualified and destructive. Weldon was among the worst," said Gregg Gonsalves, an associate professor of epidemiology at the Yale School of Public Health.

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 has reported that the CDC does plan to study autism and vaccines.

Shares of vaccine makers rose after the withdrawal became public. Moderna MRNA.O shares were up 5.6% in morning trade, and Pfizer PFE.N and Novavax's NVAX.O also rose between 1% to 2%.