What to know about Trump’s picks for CDC, FDA and surgeon general

In a series of high-profile announcements Friday evening, President-elect Trump made his picks for three top health positions in the new administration.

Johns Hopkins surgeon Marty Makary is his choice for Food and Drug Administration commissioner. He wants former Rep. Dave Weldon, a Republican from Florida, to serve as director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Dr. Janette Nesheiwat, a Fox News contributor, is in line to be the next surgeon general.

Trump made all three announcements on Truth Social and in press releases. Together the picks would help the incoming president shift the priorities of agencies that are linchpins in public health. But the choices also come with controversy.

Dr. Marty Makary for FDA commissioner

A surgical oncologist at Johns Hopkins University, Makary’s selection for the top job at the FDA is not unexpected given his work with the first Trump administration on issues like surprise medical billing. He’s also recently made statements indicating support for Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Trump’s choice to lead the Department of Health and Human Services, and Kennedy’s “Make America Healthy Again” platform.

Earlier this year, Makary appeared alongside Kennedy in a congressional roundtable on health and nutrition, where he criticized federal health agencies for not prioritizing chronic diseases and said “the greatest perpetrator of misinformation has been the United States government with the food pyramid.”

“We have the most overmedicated, sickest population in the world and no one is talking about root causes,” he said. “We have poisoned our food supply.”

In the announcement, Trump pledged that Makary would work with Kennedy to “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.”

A frequent guest on Fox News, Makary has authored several books on health care, is a member of the National Academy of Medicine and holds a master's in public health from Harvard. He gained visibility for his writing and research on the high cost of health care, medical errors and the need for more transparency in medicine, among other topics.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, he also emerged as a vocal critic of various aspects of the public health response, particularly vaccine mandates and what he called the “complete dismissal of natural immunity.”

He voiced support for lockdowns early in the pandemic and encouraged universal masking. But in the subsequent years, he became increasingly outspoken against certain COVID-related decisions made by federal health agencies. He called the CDC under the Biden administration, “the most political CDC in history.”

Dr. Dave Weldon for CDC director

Trump’s pick for the CDC, Weldon, is a physician, Army veteran and Republican who served in the House of Representatives from 1995 to 2009.

In announcing Weldon, Trump said: “Americans have lost trust in the CDC and in our Federal Health Authorities, who have engaged in censorship, data manipulation, and misinformation. 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.”

Weldon is the first nominee for CDC director who will need to be confirmed by the Senate, because of a law passed in 2022 requiring the role to have such confirmation.

“He’s a well-trained internist. He’s practiced medicine,” says Dr. Georges Benjamin, head of the American Public Health Association. “He doesn’t [seem to] have traditional public health training, but we’ll learn more when he goes through Senate confirmation.”

As a congressman from Florida, Weldon “worked with the CDC to enact a ban on patents for human embryos,” Trump said in his Truth Social post. Weldon also introduced protections for health care workers and organizations that do not provide or aid in abortions. Known as the Weldon Amendment, the clause has been attached to the annual HHS spending bill in Congress since 2005.

The Weldon Amendment and related policies apply to public funds. But according to the Guttmacher Institute, a research group that supports abortion rights, it also “emboldens health insurance plans, health care institutions and medical providers to deny abortion services and coverage … often under the rubric of protecting ‘conscience’ or ‘religious freedom.’”

Trump said that Weldon would “proudly restore the CDC to its true purpose, and will work to end the Chronic Disease Epidemic” and “prioritize Transparency, Competence and High Standards.”

Dr. Janette Nesheiwat for surgeon general

As with several of his picks for his Cabinet, Trump’s new surgeon general comes with experience at Fox News.

Nesheiwat is a medical contributor for the network and author of Beyond the Stethoscope: Miracles in Medicine, a book described on her website as “a vivid Christian memoir” that recounts her experiences during the pandemic and after. She’s also medical director at CityMD, a network of urgent care centers in New York and New Jersey — experience she has drawn on in selling her own line of vitamin supplements.

Trump praised Nesheiwat’s work “on the front lines in New York City” during the pandemic and her work in the wake of natural disasters like Hurricane Katrina and the Joplin tornadoes.

During her appearances on Fox News, she has emphasized the benefits of getting vaccinated against COVID-19 and other infectious diseases.

“She is committed to ensuring that Americans have access to affordable, quality health care, and believes in empowering individuals to take charge of their health to live longer, healthier lives,” Trump said in his announcement.

Jane Greenhalgh, Scott Hensley, Pien Huang and Diane Webber contributed to this report.

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