President-elect Donald Trump nominated his picks for Centers for Disease Control and prevention director, Food and Drug Administration commissioner, and surgeon general on Friday evening.
Trump chose former Florida representative Dave Weldon as director of the CDC. Weldon joins a number of Floridians in Trump’s cabinet, including former Florida attorney general Pam Bondi, Trump’s attorney general pick, former Florida senator Marco Rubio, Trump’s Secretary of State nominee, and Florida representative Mike Waltz, Trump’s nominee for national security adviser.
Weldon was on the Labor and Health and Human Services Appropriations Subcommittee in Congress. He is a doctor and Army veteran who served seven terms before leaving Congress, to spend more time with family, he said at the time. Weldon has expressed skepticism over the federal government’s ability to oversee vaccine safety research, skepticism that Trump’s pick for the Department of Health and Human Services, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., has in the past referenced.
“Congressman Dave Weldon has pointed out that the primary metric for success across the CDC is how many vaccines the agency sells and how successfully the agency expands its vaccine program — regardless of any negative effects on human health,” Kennedy said years ago in an interview. “Weldon exposed how the Immunization Safety Office, which is supposed to ensure vaccine efficacy and safety, has become subsumed in that metric.”
Trump said that Weldon was a “respective conservative leader on fiscal and social issues.”
“Americans have lost trust in the CDC and in our Federal Health Authorities, who have engaged in censorship, data manipulation, and misinformation,” Trump said in a statement. “Given the current Chronic Health Crisis in our Country, the CDC must step up and correct past errors to focus on the Prevention of Disease.”
Johns Hopkins gastrointestinal surgeon Marty Makary was chosen on Friday as Trump’s pick for FDA commissioner. Makary has been a critic of the FDA’s response to the Covid pandemic, and has blasted the agency in the past for its slow approval of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine. Makary advised Trump during his first administration.
“FDA has lost the trust of Americans, and has lost sight of its primary goal as a regulator,” Trump said in a statement. “He will work under the leadership of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to, among other things, properly evaluate harmful chemicals poisoning our Nation’s food supply and drugs and biologics being given to our Nation’s youth, so that we can finally address the Childhood Chronic Disease Epidemic.”
“I am confident that Dr. Makary, having dedicated his career to High-Quality, Lower-Cost Care, will restore FDA to the Gold Standard of Scientific Research, and cut the bureaucratic red tape at the Agency to make sure Americans get the Medical Cures and Treatments they deserve,” Trump added.
The president-elect also nominated Janette Nesheiwat as surgeon general on Friday, who serves as the medical director for a chain of urgent care clinics in the New York area, and is a Fox News contributor.
“She is committed to ensuring that Americans have access to affordable, quality healthcare, and believes in empowering individuals to take charge of their health to live longer, healthier lives,” Trump said. “Her expertise and leadership have been pivotal during some of the most challenging Healthcare crises of our time. Dr. Janette provided on-the-ground medical treatment to Americans in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina and the Joplin tornadoes. She is also a member of Samaritan’s Purse Disaster Assistance, Relief Team, and has provided lifesaving care during crises in Morocco, Haiti, and Poland. Dr. Nesheiwat will play a pivotal role in MAKING AMERICA HEALTHY AGAIN!”