President-elect Donald Trump announced that former Rep. Dr. Dave Weldon, R-Fla., is his pick as the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

President-elect Donald Trump tapped former Florida Rep. Dave Weldon (R) to serve as the director for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) during his upcoming administration.

While in Congress, Weldon introduced a bill that would give responsibility for the nation's vaccine safety to an independent agency within the HHS.

Trump says Weldon 'will proudly restore CDC to its true purpose, and will work to end the chronic disease epidemic, and make America healthy again'

In a flurry of picks on Friday evening, Trump named three choices for top health jobs. Together they would help the incoming president shift the priorities of agencies that are key to public health.

Weldon, 71, is a medical doctor and former lawmaker who served in the House, representing Florida. The former congressman has been a strong critic of the CDC, especially its vaccine program. Weldon has championed the long-debunked notion that thimerosal, a vaccine preservative, is linked to autism.

President-elect Donald Trump has nominated Dave Weldon to be director of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, tapping a former Florida politician and physician to lead the nation’s public health agency.

Trump, 78, nominated Dr. Marty Makary – a professor at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine – to serve as FDA commissioner; former Congressman Dr. Dave Weldon to head the CDC; and Dr. Janette Nesheiwat – a Fox News medical contributor – to serve as surgeon general.

Weldon has questioned the safety of some vaccines and advocated for limits on abortion. He'll be the first CDC director to face Senate confirmation.

He would report to Trump's pick to lead the Department of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr., if he is confirmed by the Senate. Kennedy, an environmental lawyer and a