ICYMI: Senator Murray Statement on Meeting with CDC Nominee Dave Weldon, RFK Plotting to Overthrow Vaccine Advisory Committees
Senator Murray to Bloomberg: “In our meeting last month, I was deeply disturbed to hear Dr. Weldon repeat debunked claims about vaccines—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.”
Senator Murray, along with Senator Richard Burr (R-NC), authored the PREVENT Pandemics Act that made the CDC Director a Senate confirmed position for the first time starting this year
Washington, D.C. – Today, U.S. Senator Patty Murray (D-WA), a senior member and former Chair of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee issued the following statement in response to reports that the Trump White House is withdrawing the nomination of former Congressman Dave Weldon to be Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and the cancellation of the hearing on his nomination before the HELP Committee this morning.
“As we face one of the worst measles outbreaks in years thanks to President Trump, a vaccine skeptic who spent years spreading lies about safe and proven vaccines should never have even been under consideration to lead the foremost agency charged with protecting public health. RFK Jr. is already doing incalculable damage by spreading lies and disinformation as the top health official in America. While I have little to no confidence in the Trump administration to do so, they should immediately nominate someone for this position who at bare minimum believes in basic science and will help lead CDC’s important work to monitor and prevent deadly outbreaks.”
Senator Murray met with Dr. Weldon on February 20th and released a statement outlining her serious concerns with the nominee after their meeting. In a statement to Bloomberg this week, Senator Murray reiterated those concerns, saying: “In our meeting last month, I was deeply disturbed to hear Dr. Weldon repeat debunked claims about vaccines—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. At the same time this administration is elevating prominent vaccine skeptics like RFK Jr. and Dr. Weldon to key positions, it is also mass firing thousands of qualified public health experts and freezing communications across health agencies—and make no mistake, there will be serious consequences to decimating our public health infrastructure.”
As a longtime appropriator and former Chair of the Senate HELP Committee, Murray has long fought to boost biomedical research, strengthen public health infrastructure, and make health care more affordable and accessible. Over her years as a senior member of the Appropriations Committee, she has secured billions of dollars in increases for biomedical research at the National Institutes of Health, and during her time as Chair of the HELP Committee she established the new ARPA-H research agency as part of her PREVENT Pandemics Act to advance some of the most cutting-edge research in the field. As Chair of the HELP Committee, Murray was also instrumental in crafting the American Rescue Plan Act, including its landmark investments in public health and health care. Senator Murray was also the lead Democratic negotiator of the bipartisan 21st Century Cures Act, which delivered a major federal investment to boost NIH research, among many other investments. Murray is also the lead sponsor of the Public Health Infrastructure Saves Lives Act (PHISLA), legislation to establish $4.5 billion in dedicated, annual funding for a grant program to build up and maintain the nation’s public health system across the board.
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