Trump announces Fox News star Dr Nicole Saphier as new surgeon general pick after pulling Casey Means’ nomination
President Donald Trump announced on Thursday that he was nominating Dr Nicole B Saphier as his pick for surgeon general.
Saphier is a radiologist and Fox News contributor and is replacing previous nominee Dr Casey Means, a wellness influencer and ally of health secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr and his Make American Great Again Movement.
Means faced tough questions at a Senate confirmation hearing in February over her controversial stance on vaccines, birth control and pesticides.
Trump wrote on Truth Social: ‘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, while at the same time working with men and women on all other forms of cancer diagnoses and treatments.
‘She is also an INCREDIBLE COMMUNICATOR, who makes complicated health issues more easily understood by all Americans. Dr. Nicole Saphier will do great things for our Country, and help, “MAKE AMERICA HEALTHY AGAIN.”
‘Congratulations Nicole, our Country has long been waiting for you!’
A biography of her on Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center’s website also lists the physician as the director of breast imaging at the institute’s imaging center in Monmouth, New Jersey.
The surgeon general of the United States serves as the country’s leading figure on public health. The Department of Health and Human Services calls the surgeon general the ‘nation’s doctor.’
President Donald Trump announced on Thursday that he was nominating Dr Nicole B Saphier (pictured) as his pick for surgeon general
The position oversees the US Public Health Service (USPHS) Commissioned Corps, a group of officers who are public health professionals.
Saphier went to medical school at the Ross University School of Medicine and completed her residency training at Maricopa Integrated Health Systems, with a fellowship at the Mayo Clinic.
She is board-certified in diagnostic radiology and lists her specialties as breast imaging, CT scans and ultrasounds.
Saphier was among public figures who falsely claimed in 2022 that the CDC was seeking to mandate that students receive Covid-19 vaccines despite the agency’s inability to do so.
That decision is left up to states and individual jurisdictions.
Saphier first tweeted the claim, which was then picked up and amplified by news networks and social media users.
The physician is Trump’s third pick for the top health spot. The president first nominated Janette Nesheiwat last year. The White House withdrew her nomination and put forward Means in her place.
However, Means, a popular online personality, faced scrutiny in her hearing when lawmakers questioned her views on vaccines and her medical credentials.
Trump had written earlier on Thursday on Truth Social: ‘Casey will continue to fight for MAHA on the many important Health issues facing our Country, such as the rising childhood disease epidemic, increased autism rates, poor nutrition, over-medicalization, and researching the root causes of infertility, and many other difficult medical problems.’
