Saphier testifies MMR vaccine ‘not lethal’ in confirmation hearing
The Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee on Wednesday advanced President Donald Trump’s nominee for surgeon general, Nicole Saphier, on a party-line vote.
Because this is the final week of the Senate’s session before November, the nomination will not see a floor vote until after the midterm elections.
The committee also advanced two Health and Human Services nominations alongside Saphier: Timothy Westlake to serve as assistant secretary for mental health and substance use, and Mary Lazare to serve as assistant secretary for aging.
Trump nominated Saphier in April after withdrawing the nomination of Casey Means, an ally of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and advocate for Kennedy’s agenda. Means’ nomination had stalled.
Saphier is a radiologist and director of breast imaging at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center Monmouth. Before her nomination, she was a Fox News medical contributor known for her criticism of how the COVID-19 pandemic was managed. She published a book in 2020, “Make America Healthy Again: How Bad Behavior and Big Government Caused a Trillion-Dollar Crisis.”
In announcing the nomination, Trump called Saphier a “STAR physician” and “an INCREDIBLE COMMUNICATOR, who makes complicated health issues more easily understood by all Americans.”
Saphier has been publicly critical of Kennedy, questioning his hiring of activist David Geier, who has been described as anti-vaccine, to work on autism issues at the department.
During her confirmation hearing, Saphier testified that the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine is not lethal, though Trump has suggested otherwise. She called the vaccine “our greatest tool for combating measles infections” and encouraged people to receive it.