Third time lucky? Dr Nicole Saphier, a radiologist, health influencer and former Fox News contributor, faced a US Senate hearing overnight as Donald Trump’s nominee for surgeon general, the government’s chief medical officer.
The job of chief medical doctor and health educator for the United States has been vacant since Trump returned to office, as doubts over his two previous picks saw them fall by the wayside. Entrepreneur and wellness influencer Dr Casey Means’s candidacy stalled over her background and vaccine views, and the President withdrew his first nominee, Fox News medical contributor Janette Nesheiwat, amid questions about her qualifications.
Saphier, 44, comes with well-established medical credentials, but her nomination still attracted controversy. Her business selling herbal supplements has come under scrutiny, and overnight she was questioned on her views on smoking, abortion and vaccines.
While Trump and his Health Secretary, Robert F Kennedy Jr, have repeatedly highlighted discredited theories about links between childhood vaccines and autism, Saphier took a different position.
“I don’t know what causes autism, but I have not seen reputable evidence that would suggest that vaccines cause autism,” she told the hearing. “I believe the MMR vaccine is our greatest tool for combating measles.”
Asked about a recent US decision to stop recommending routine hepatitis B shots for all healthy newborns at birth, she said: “You’re speaking to someone who tells people they have cancer every day, and the hepatitis B vaccine is one of the most tangible ways we have to prevent cancer.”
She was less direct on abortion, a deeply divisive topic in US politics. Asked if, as surgeon general, she would advocate against state-level abortion bans that were killing women, she said that “if confirmed, I desperately want to do work … to see what we can [do] to ensure the lives of our mothers because they deserve better than we’re giving them right now”.
What is Saphier’s medical background?
Saphier is a radiologist and director of breast imaging at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center Monmouth in New Jersey, specialising in the diagnosis and treatment of breast cancer.
She is also a faculty member at Weill Cornell Medicine in New York. The centre wrote on LinkedIn that Saphier was “committed to expanding access to breast cancer screening” and had made “tremendous contributions to women’s health”.
Her 2020 book Make America Healthy Again (a title she chose long before RFK Jr. seized on the phrase) was a national bestseller, and argued for personal responsibility and better preventive care.
What did Trump say about her?
In May, the US President announced his choice, calling her “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”.
He said she was an “incredible communicator” and, in reference to the long wait for the role to be filled, noted, “our country has long been waiting for you”.
Health Secretary Kennedy welcomed the choice, saying Saphier was “a long-time warrior for the Maha movement”.
What is she selling?
Saphier argued at the hearing that her years of appearances as a commentator on cable TV and on social media as a health influencer were the perfect preparation for the role of surgeon general. “For a decade, I have specialised in translating complex, fast-evolving medical information on various media platforms into content that millions of Americans can understand and use,” she said.
She founded and owns Drop Rx, an online supplements business selling what she describes as “clean, thoughtfully crafted tinctures … inspired by both traditional herbal wisdom and modern scientific insight”. On the website, she notes that her products have not been evaluated by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and “are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease”.
Drop Rx products have names including Calm, Sleep, Focus, Boost, Allure and Intimacy. The latter, a mixture of herbs described as having “natural aphrodisiac properties”, promises to boost libido and “enhance intimacy and performance”.
The Drop Rx site sells a range of herbal supplements that it notes have not been evaluated by the FDAThe Center for Science in the Public Interest, an independent consumer and public health watchdog focused on food safety and nutrition, campaigned against Saphier’s nomination partly due to her supplements business.
Its president, Dr Peter Lurie, described the Drop Rx range as “quackery, pure and simple … in effect diverting patients from real drugs that might actually work”.
After media reports on the products on sale via Amazon and questions about their compliance with Amazon’s rules, several were listed as “unavailable”.
Lurie also said Saphier was “an investor in Philip Morris International and stands to profit the more cigarettes are sold”, in contrast to previous surgeons-general who had campaigned against big tobacco.
During the nomination hearing, Saphier was questioned about her views on smoking and insisted she has a “passion for preventing cancer and protecting our children” and was “as anti-smoking, anti-tobacco as you could imagine anyone to be”.
She will reportedly sell her share in Drop RX as well as stocks in three tobacco companies, Altria, British American Tobacco and Philip Morris International, if her nomination is successful.
Saphier also announced she would pause her podcast, Wellness Unmasked, during the confirmation period and her tenure in the job, but said: “I look forward to the day when I can return, maybe to this microphone, or some other form in the next few years”.
She is expected to be confirmed by the Senate, and her answers were positively received during the hearing.
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