Nicole Saphier, a breast imaging radiologist at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center and a frequent Fox News contributor, is Donald Trump's third nominee for surgeon general, following the withdrawals of Janette Neishewat and Casey Means.
Saphier is widely expected to clear Senate confirmation. Art Caplan, a medical ethicist at NYU's Grossman School of Medicine and a polio survivor, called her "almost a lock" to pass her hearing. "She's a very effective communicator" who appears "mainstream enough" to secure the position, Caplan said, though he stressed he disagrees with her positions on vaccines and public health interventions.
Jerome Adams, surgeon general under Trump's first term, issued a statement calling Saphier "a solid pick" and "an exceptionally clear communicator, especially effective at reaching conservative audiences who often tune out traditional public health messaging." He noted that unlike Means, Saphier maintains an active medical license and currently practices medicine.
The appointment would place Saphier among the 25 top Trump administration officials with current or former Fox connections. She has appeared on the network more than 640 times.
Vaccine Concerns and Policy Positions
Saphier has repeatedly questioned routine childhood vaccinations and public health measures tied to Covid. In September, she said she began scrutinizing the vaccine schedule more critically after her son contracted whooping cough, arguing that "questioning the vaccine schedule doesn't mean you're anti-vax."
When measles cases rose across the country, she expressed concern about declining vaccination rates, telling her podcast audience: "We have to get back on track." Yet she also called for rolling back school vaccine mandates, which are determined at the state level, not federally.
She questioned whether hepatitis B vaccines should be required for school attendance, claiming the virus is "not highly contagious," though it can survive on surfaces like nail clippers for up to a week and cause severe illness in children. Caplan dismissed her calls to space out the vaccine schedule as "nonsense" and warned that casting doubt on vaccine safety at a time when vaccination rates are declining sends a harmful message.
In 2021, Saphier incorrectly claimed children did not transmit Covid as effectively as adults and argued teachers should return to classrooms before vaccines were widely available. When the Omicron variant emerged, she advocated allowing the virus to circulate for "hybrid immunity." More than 244,000 Americans died of Covid in the year that followed.
She has praised the recent removal of childhood Covid vaccines from federal recommendations and criticized the American Academy of Pediatrics for continuing to recommend them after Robert F. Kennedy Jr., now secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, slashed the guidance.
Saphier authored "Make America Healthy Again" in 2020, four years before Kennedy adopted the slogan at a rally. The movement aligns various constituencies including anti-vaccine activists, supplement sellers, nutritionists, and environmentalists. On her podcast, she covers topics ranging from substance use and GLP-1 drugs to "forever chemicals" and microplastics, often emphasizing personal responsibility over government intervention.
She also operates Drop Rx, an herbal tincture company, and promotes supplements on social media with unverified claims, such as assertions that "rosemary and sage decrease Alzheimer's risk." The wellness industry operates with minimal FDA oversight.
On gender-affirming care, Saphier has voiced strong opposition, calling it a mental health crisis and at times suggesting being transgender is a fad. She has also opposed research into hormone blockers.
When federal cancer research funding faced cuts under the "Department of Government Efficiency" program led by Elon Musk, Saphier defended the reductions. "I think Doge is probably one of the greatest things to happen in US history," she said.
Author James Rodriguez: "Saphier's confirmation seems likely, but her public health record shows a pattern of undermining vaccines and science at moments when public trust in medicine has already fractured."
Comments