Trump rounds out health team with CDC, FDA picks

President-elect Trump rounded out his health team for his upcoming White House term by announcing his Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Federal Drug Administration (FDA) and surgeon general picks on Friday. 

In a flurry of administration announcements on Friday, Trump said he tapped Johns Hopkins’s surgeon, Marty Makary, to lead the FDA. The president-elect chose former Florida Rep. Dave Weldon (R) to be the director of the CDC while medical doctor Janette Nesheiwat was named to be the next surgeon general. 

Just over a week ago, the president-elect said he would nominate environmental lawyer Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to lead the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), which has raised alarms in the public health community.

Some experts have said Kennedy will not have the authority to ban vaccines, a medical treatment he has criticized, but he could withdraw vaccine recommendations and look to downsize vaccine funding requests, according to some health experts. 

On Tuesday, Trump said he would nominate television personality Dr. Mehmet Oz to be the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) administrator. The director of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) has yet to be announced. 

FDA commissioner

Trump intends to nominate Makary to head the FDA, a position subject to Senate confirmation. The FDA oversees the security and safety of medical devices, cosmetics, food and medications. 

Makary is an author and a surgical oncologist at Johns Hopkins University. Makary has at times expressed contrarian views regarding the COVID-19 pandemic. 

In op-eds, he has stressed the importance of herd immunity during the pandemic 

“But herd immunity is the inevitable result of viral spread and vaccination. When the chain of virus transmission has been broken in multiple places, it’s harder for it to spread — and that includes the new strains,” he wrote in February, 2021 in a Wall Street Journal and predicted that herd immunity would come by April.

He also criticized the FDA in 2021 for halting the rollout of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine rollout due to blood clot complications among some patients. 

“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 wrote in the announcement. 

CDC director

Trump picked Weldon to be the next CDC director. The position is also subject to a Senate confirmation. 

Weldon is an Army veteran and a medical doctor who served for seven terms in the lower chamber. He held posts on several House committees, including Health and Human Services, and Appropriations. Following his tenure on Capitol Hill that ended in 2008, he pivoted back to practicing medicine. 

Weldon got his medical degree at SUNY-Buffalo. He has voiced skepticism about some vaccines. In 2007, he introduced a bill to shift the oversight of vaccine safety to an independent agency within HHS and away from the CDC. 

"There's an enormous inherent conflict of interest within the CDC, and if we fail to move vaccine safety to a separate independent office, safety issues will remain a low priority and public confidence in vaccines will continue to erode," Weldon said at the time. 

Surgeon general

Trump tapped Nesheiwat, a medical doctor and Fox News contributor, to be his next surgeon general. The Senate has to confirm Nesheiwat to serve in the role. 

She is a graduate of the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences and a double board-certified medical doctor working at CityMD, a web of urgent care centers. She has authored a book titled “Beyond the Stethoscope: Miracles in Medicine.” 

“I am proud to announce that Dr. Janette Nesheiwat will be the Nation’s Doctor as the United States Surgeon General. Dr. Nesheiwat is a double board-certified Medical Doctor with an unwavering commitment to saving and treating thousands of American lives,” Trump said on Friday.