'He is one of us!': US anti-vaxxers rejoice at nomination of David Weldon for CDC [View all]
Source: The Guardian
Sun 1 Dec 2024 06.00 EST
When Donald Trump nominated David Weldon, a 71-year-old doctor from Florida who has long questioned the safety of vaccines, to lead the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), anti-vaccine activists celebrated. The move comes as the US faces increased threats from bird flu and mpox as well as resurgences of whooping cough, measles and other vaccine-preventable diseases.
“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.
Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/dec/01/antivaxxers-david-weldon-cdc-nomination
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