\n<\/p>\n
The new nominee for US surgeon general is an \u201ceffective communicator\u201d who appears to be \u201cmainstream enough\u201d to pass confirmation before the US Senate, experts say.<\/p>\n
But she has questioned routine childhood vaccines and other public health measures, and she is a progenitor of the \u201cMake America healthy again\u201d movement.<\/p>\n
Nicole Saphier, a radiologist and Fox News medical contributor, is Donald Trump\u2019s third pick for US surgeon general, following withdrawn nominations for Janette Nesheiwat and Casey Means.<\/p>\n
The surgeon general can\u2019t make new laws or regulations, can\u2019t enforce policy and has no budget. Still, it\u2019s one of the most influential health positions in the nation.<\/p>\n
Means, who is not an actively licensed physician, faced opposition because of her significant conflicts of interest in the wellness industry and a lack of support for vaccines.<\/p>\n
Saphier has also cast doubt on the childhood vaccine schedule, public health interventions for Covid, and healthcare for transgender children. She owns her own supplement company as well.<\/p>\n
Saphier is \u201calmost a lock\u201d to pass her confirmation hearing, said Art Caplan, a professor of medical ethics at NYU\u2019s Grossman School of Medicine and a polio survivor who has spoken with Saphier in the past and is familiar with her work. Saphier is \u201ca very effective communicator\u201d who appears \u201cmainstream enough\u201d to secure the position, Caplan said. \u201cI don\u2019t agree with her at all,\u201d he said, but her positions on vaccines, for instance, likely \u201cwon\u2019t prove to be fatal\u201d to her nomination, he said.<\/p>\n
Saphier is \u201coverall a solid pick\u201d, Jerome Adams, the surgeon general under the first Trump administration, said in a statement. \u201cShe is an exceptionally clear communicator \u2013 especially effective at reaching conservative audiences who often tune out traditional public health messaging.\u201d<\/p>\n
Unlike Means, Saphier has an active medical license and currently practices medicine, which \u201cwe really shouldn\u2019t have to highlight,\u201d Adams said, \u201cbut here we are\u201d. Adams said he has worked with Saphier before and \u201cshe\u2019s no sycophant\u201d, adding: \u201cHopefully she\u2019ll be allowed to follow the science wherever it leads.\u201d<\/p>\n
Saphier is a licensed physician specializing in breast imaging at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center\u2019s Monmouth location. She has a strong focus on prevention, especially of breast cancer \u2013 which she has attributed in part to lower birth rates, pregnancy at older ages, and less breastfeeding, and she argued that cancer prevention should involve support for younger parents and for breastfeeding.<\/p>\n
<\/span>Donald Trump holds up an executive order nominating Nicole Saphier as the new surgeon general during an event in the Oval Office of the White House on 30 April in Washington DC.<\/span> Photograph: Andrew Harnik\/Getty Images<\/p>\n She would be the 25th top official in the second Trump administration to currently or previously work for Fox, having appeared on the network more than 640 times. Neishewat, Trump\u2019s first surgeon general pick, was also a Fox contributor.<\/p>\n Saphier wrote a book in 2020 called Make America Healthy Again, four years before Robert F Kennedy Jr, now the secretary of the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), used the slogan himself at a political rally. The Maha movement would bring together Kennedy\u2019s sometimes unruly coalition of supporters, including anti-vaccine activists, nutrition advocates, environmentalists and supplement sellers. On her podcast, Saphier talks about a range of topics, including substance use, GLP-1 drugs, nutrition, infectious disease, \u201cforever chemicals\u201d and microplastics.<\/p>\n Saphier\u2019s book emphasizes the role of individual action, not \u201cbig government\u201d, in improving health. While she \u201cleans heavily toward \u2018personal responsibility\u2019 and is skeptical of government intervention\u201d, that position will hopefully \u201csoften\u201d once she gets a better view of the public health landscape in America, Adams said. \u201cYou can\u2019t always make the healthy choice when the environment only offers bad ones.\u201d<\/p>\n The surgeon general makes recommendations on health, including vaccines \u2013 and Saphier has frequently downplayed vaccines, especially mandates to attend school, which are set at the state, not federal, level.<\/p>\n In February 2025, as measles began rising in the United States, she said most \u201cgood research\u201d shows that vaccines aren\u2019t linked to autism. In March 2026, she once again expressed concern about the spiraling measles outbreak and decreasing vaccination rates.<\/p>\n \u201cWe have to get back on track,\u201d she said on her podcast, before taking aim at vaccine mandates for school attendance. \u201cWe need to roll back a lot of the mandates, but we also need to make sure that there is clear messaging that vaccines \u2013 while they come with risks, they are overwhelmingly safe and they do prevent morbidity and mortality from what would be a preventable illness.\u201d<\/p>\n Saphier criticized how the administration handled changes to the routine childhood vaccine schedule.<\/p>\n \u201cI didn\u2019t really like the way they communicated these new changes. I think it created a lot more confusion,\u201d she said on the podcast in January. She highlighted the differences between the US and other countries, saying that comparisons were like \u201capples and oranges\u201d.<\/p>\n She has also called the schedule into question, looking \u201cmore critically\u201d into childhood vaccines after her son became ill with whooping cough, she said in September on her podcast.<\/p>\n \u201cQuestioning the vaccine schedule, that doesn\u2019t mean you\u2019re anti-vax,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n When it comes to decreasing vaccination rates across the country, \u201cwe have to figure out what\u2019s causing this and what can we do to move forward so that people can actually trust the public health process all over again,\u201d she said. She attributed the decline to Covid vaccine mandates and rising misinformation online.<\/p>\n She also questioned why hepatitis B vaccines are required for school attendance. \u201cIt\u2019s not highly contagious,\u201d she said in the same podcast episode, though hepatitis B can linger on surfaces, such as nail clippers and sports equipment, for up to a week. Hepatitis B can cause severe illness in children, but decades of evidence demonstrate the safety and effectiveness of hepatitis B vaccines.<\/p>\n \u201cSometimes she talks about spacing out the vaccine schedule. That\u2019s nonsense. There\u2019s no reason to do that,\u201d Caplan said. \u201cWhat\u2019s dangerous to a child is not getting all the vaccines properly.\u201d Caplan also pointed to the rise of misinformation and the decline of vaccination: \u201cTo sow doubt about the safety of vaccines at a time when we need them more than ever is still a bad thing, and I don\u2019t agree with her when she does that at all.\u201d<\/p>\n Saphier claimed incorrectly in February 2021 that children did not transmit Covid as well as adults do, and she said teachers should return to school before vaccines were fully rolled out because \u201cscience shows it is safe to go back to school without a vaccine.\u201d In December 2021, when the Omicron variant emerged, Saphier said: \u201cIt is time to move forward and allow this mild infection to circulate so we can continue to build that hybrid immunity.\u201d About 244,000 Americans died of Covid the following year. In 2022, Saphier claimed that the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) were preparing to mandate Covid shots for all schoolchildren \u2013 a rumor that was widely circulated and remains an anti-vaccine talking point.<\/p>\n In more recent months, she pushed back on statements from Trump and health officials attempting to link autism to acetaminophen (Tylenol) use during pregnancy, pointing instead to the risk of high fevers.<\/p>\n \u201cThe message can\u2019t be, absolutely do anything to avoid Tylenol. It should be, use it sparingly and only use it after talking to the doctor,\u201d she said in September.<\/p>\n But she praised removing the full recommendation for Covid vaccination among children. \u201cI was always against vaccinating healthy young kids. I\u2019m very happy to see at this point that they are removing it from the recommended vaccine schedule,\u201d she said. She criticized the American Academy of Pediatrics for recommending vaccines after Kennedy slashed recommendations. When Kennedy was nominated for HHS, Saphier said he was \u201cby far one of the best visionaries when it comes to the healthcare industry\u201d.<\/p>\n Saphier has also been a vocal opponent to gender-affirming care. In an interview on her podcast with someone who detransitioned Saphier said that being transgender is a mental health issue constituting a \u201cnational emergency\u201d and questioned whether being transgender is a \u201cfad\u201d. She has also opposed research on hormone blockers.<\/p>\n Separately, Saphier owns Drop Rx, an herbal tincture company. She praises the power of supplements like hers on social media, including how \u201crosemary and sage decrease Alzheimer\u2019s risk\u201d \u2013 claims that have not been evaluated by the US Food and Drug Administration, since the multibillion-dollar wellness industry is largely unregulated.<\/p>\n When cancer research was halted last year, Saphier said her colleagues were concerned, but she defended the cuts made by the \u201cdepartment of government efficiency\u201d (Doge), the short-lived and expensive attempt headed by Elon Musk to cut government programs.<\/p>\n \u201cI think Doge is probably one of the greatest things to happen in US history,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n