President Donald Trump on Thursday announced a new nominee for surgeon general, Dr. Nicole Saphier, putting an end to months of speculation about whether the Senate would confirm his prior pick, Dr. Casey Means.
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Saphier is listed on Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center’s website as a radiologist and director of breast imaging at its facility in Monmouth County, New Jersey. She is also a medical contributor on Fox News.
If confirmed by the Senate, Saphier would become the nation’s top doctor, with the power to issue health advisories for the country.
“Nicole is a STAR physician who has spent her career guiding women facing breast cancer through their diagnosis and treatment while tirelessly advocating to increase early cancer detection and prevention,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.
“She is also an INCREDIBLE COMMUNICATOR, who makes complicated health issues more easily understood by all Americans,” he continued.
The title of Saphier’s 2020 book, “Make America Healthy Again,” became the slogan for Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s agenda. The book discusses many of the subjects that Kennedy has focused on, including the possibility of preventing chronic diseases by adjusting lifestyle factors such as diet and exercise.
Her 2021 book, “Panic Attack,” criticizes pandemic-era shutdowns and school closures — views that align with those of several top health officials, including Kennedy and Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, who leads the National Institutes of Health and is acting director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
In response to a request for comment, a spokesperson for the Health and Human Services Department directed NBC News to the White House.
Means, a close ally of Kennedy, faced a tough Senate confirmation hearing in February, when she fielded questions about her controversial views on vaccines, birth control and pesticides — subjects she had previously described as dangerous to human health.
Trump said Thursday on Truth Social that Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La., had stood in the way of Means’ nomination and called him “a very disloyal person.”
“I nominated Casey, a strong MAHA Warrior, at the recommendation of Secretary Kennedy, who understands the MAHA Movement better than anyone, with perhaps the possible exception of ME!,” Trump wrote. “Nevertheless, despite Senator Cassidy’s intransigence and political games, Casey will continue to fight for MAHA on the many important Health issues facing our Country.”
Cassidy, who cast a crucial vote for Kennedy to become health secretary, chairs the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee, where a vote on whether to advance Means’ nomination had stalled. NBC News has reached out to Cassidy and Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., the committee’s ranking member.
Cassidy has opposed many of Kennedy’s vaccine policy changes, such as an update to the CDC website suggesting that there could be a link between vaccines and autism. Many scientific studies have debunked the claim. Ahead of his confirmation vote, Kennedy had assured Cassidy that he would not undermine faith in vaccines. The two recently sparred when Kennedy appeared before the HELP committee to discuss the proposed budget for the 2027 fiscal year.
Trump nominated Means for surgeon general nearly a year ago, after withdrawing his previous choice, Dr. Janette Nesheiwat, a former Fox News medical contributor.
After Means’ nomination was announced, outside health experts questioned her lack of an active medical license. Although she graduated from medical school, Means did not complete a surgical residency program and her license lapsed in 2024.
Means gained attention on social media over the last couple of years for lambasting traditional medicine and accusing pharmaceutical companies of corruption. She has written that hormonal birth control comes with “horrifying health risks” and that birth control pills are “prescribed like candy.” She also suggested without evidence that the cumulative effect of childhood vaccines may be contributing to autism.
During her Senate hearing, Means dodged some questions about those stances. She said that all women should have access to birth control but that some faced a higher risk of side effects. She stopped short of recommending flu, measles or hepatitis B shots but acknowledged their lifesaving benefits. And she declined to rule out vaccines as a contributor to autism, saying “we should not leave any stones unturned” in the search for the condition’s root causes.
Some Democrats had also voiced concerned about possible conflicts of interest for Means because she has earned money promoting dietary supplements and other wellness products online, many of which are not backed by scientific research.
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