The White House has withdrawn the nomination of vaccine skeptic and former Republican Congressman Dave Weldon to lead the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), hours before he was set to testify before a Senate committee.

Weldon, 71, was slated to answer questions before the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee on Thursday — but a White House spokesperson confirmed to The Post that the CDC pick was no longer under consideration.

The reversal came after Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. confided that Weldon wasn’t ready for the position, according to Axios, which first reported on the nominee’s withdrawal.

Weldon, however, claimed he did have Kennedy’s backing, claiming the HHS head was “very upset” about the decision to pull his nomination. 

“He said I was the perfect person for the job,” Weldon said in a statement. 

The Trump administration was allegedly told before the hearing that Weldon didn’t have the votes to be confirmed, a Republican familiar with the talks told the Wall Street Journal. 

Weldon has previously raised questions about links between vaccination and autism, identifying mercury as a potential cause.

The Florida Republican served in Congress from 1995 to 2009 — and videos of his vaccine skepticism went viral on social media earlier this week in anticipation of a pitched confirmation fight.

While representing the Sunshine State in the House, Weldon co-sponsored legislation to ban mercury in vaccines.

Weldon’s bid to lead the CDC hit a major bump following a contentious meeting with the staff of Sen. Susan Collins (R.-MA), who questioned his controversial views on vaccines. 

Kennedy allegedly told Weldon that following the meeting, she was considering voting no on his confirmation, Weldon said. 

Things only got worse following meetings with other senators, with Weldon allegedly opting to meet with the lawmakers himself rather than working with Trump’s transition staff, sources told the WSJ. 

Weldon also appeared unprepared for the job during his meetings, allegedly telling Senate Republicans that he needed to be in charge of the CDC first before drafting a plan to lead it, one source said. 

The former congressman also hadn’t reviewed public information on the agency’s budgets and priorities because he was busy transferring patients in his private medical practice to other doctors, the sources add. 

Kennedy, 71, was hit with similarly pointed lines of questioning about his stances on the polio, measles and hepatitis B vaccines during his own confirmation hearing — but won the approval of HELP Committee Chairman Bill Cassidy (R-La.) and other Republicans and was later confirmed.

Weldon however, was ultimately too close to being “antivax” for Cassidy, who asked for the nomination to be withdrawn. 

“So, he was a big problem and losing Collins too was clearly too much for the White House,” Weldon said. 

With the committee composed of 12 Republicans and 11 Democrats, losing two GOP senators would have likely sunk Weldon’s CDC ambition. 

“The president is a busy man doing good work for our nation, and the last thing he needs is a controversy about CDC,” Weldon added.