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

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.

The withdrawal is ...