FILE PHOTO: Chairman of the Shuttle Columbia Accident Investigation Board, retired U. S. Navy Admiral Harold W. Gehman (R), talks to U.S. Congressman Dave Weldon (L), R-FL, as they examine pieces of debris from the spacecraft in the RLV Hanger at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida, May 17, 2003. REUTERS/Charles W Luzier/File Photo
Trump made yet another medical appointment on Friday evening with the selection of former Rep. Dave Weldon (R-FL) to head up the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
"In addition to being a Medical Doctor for 40 years, and an Army Veteran, Dave has been a respected conservative leader on fiscal and social issues, and served on the Labor/HHS Appropriations Subcommittee, working for Accountability on HHS and CDC Policy and Budgeting," stated Trump on his Truth Social platform. "Dave also served in a leading role in Government Oversight and Reform Committee Hearings, addressing issues within HHS and CDC. Dave has successfully worked with the CDC to enact a ban on patents for human embryos."
Weldon is a stringently anti-abortion activist, who when he served in Congress was involved in legislation to legally protect anti-abortion doctors and restrict the way doctors can perform the procedure.
He is also well known for his role in the Terri Schiavo controversy, where after a Florida woman suffered brain death, Congress attempted to intervene against her husband's right to terminate life support. Weldon in particular used his credentials as a doctor to dispute Schiavo's diagnosis.
The CDC played a critically important role in trying to maintain public safety at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, and is year to year a frontline agency monitoring disease outbreaks and potential pandemics as they develop.
This comes after Trump announced several other appointments to key health positions, including a Fox News regular to serve as surgeon general, and, most controversially, anti-vaccine conspiracy theorist Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to lead the Department of Health and Human Services.