RFK Jr.’s First Big Defeat on CDC Chief Tests Limits of Vaccine Agenda

A month into his tenure as health secretary, Kennedy has taken steps to institutionalize his beliefs about vaccines.

Photographer: Win McNamee/AFP/Getty Images
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Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s failure to install a fellow vaccine critic to a key government post is testing the limits of how far the US health secretary can go to promote his public-health agenda.

The White House late Wednesday informed Dave Weldon that officials were pulling his nomination to lead the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention after his views on vaccines alarmed key Republican senators. Weldon had been scheduled to attend a Senate panel hearing the following morning, but “there were not the votes” to confirm the nominee, Senator Bill Cassidy of Louisiana said.